{"id":10781,"date":"2015-03-30T19:06:32","date_gmt":"2015-03-30T19:06:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=10781"},"modified":"2015-03-30T19:06:32","modified_gmt":"2015-03-30T19:06:32","slug":"in-pictures-a-soggy-spring-gala-at-heaton-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=10781","title":{"rendered":"In Pictures: A soggy spring gala at Heaton Park"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Heaton Park Tramway’s almost annual Spring Gala has not had the best of luck with weather in the last few years – and so it was that the 2015 event on Sunday 29th March was marred by miserable conditions, with heavy rain for much of the day. Unsurprisingly this had a negative impact on attendance numbers, but even so the volunteers at the tramway did their best to put on a good show for those who did brave the elements.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The day commenced with Blackpool Brush Railcoach 623 <\/strong>as the first service tram, an appropriate choice considering the other two operational Brush cars (630<\/strong> at Crich and 631<\/strong> at Blackpool) were also used that weekend. It was later joined by Manchester 765 <\/strong>and Blackpool Vanguard 619<\/strong>, although the latter did only a few trips due to the less than ideal weather! However, all three of these trams were easily upstaged by the presence of Blackpool 280 <\/strong>which spent much of the day parked outside Lakeside Depot, giving visitors the first chance to inspect the car in its new home. 280 <\/strong>was also briefly posed alongside fellow ex-Blackpool residents 619 <\/strong>and 623<\/strong>, and operated a few journeys along the full length of the line for crew familiarisation purposes.<\/p>\n

The next, and more ambitious, special event at the park will be the launch of car 280 <\/strong>on 26th April when a series of line-ups, parallel runs and other activities are planned to provide a day packed with excitement. Hopefully the weather will be much kinder!<\/p>\n

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The start of the 2015 Spring Gala at Heaton Park with Blackpool 619 and Manchester 765 awaiting the arrival of early visitors.<\/p><\/div>\n

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We now move to the Lakeside end of the tramway where Blackpool 623 is seen alongside Manchester 765.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Star of the show 280 pauses at Whitegate with 623 pulling up behind for a photo opportunity.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Probably the highlight of this event was this lineup of three Blackpool trams in contrasting liveries: 280, 623 and 619.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Blackpool 280 heads towards Middleton Road during a crew training run in the afternoon, with two service trams also visible in the background. (Photos x 5 by Bradley Jones)<\/p><\/div>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Heaton Park Tramway’s almost annual Spring Gala has not had the best of luck with weather in the last few years – and so it was that the 2015 event on Sunday 29th March was marred by miserable conditions, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[14],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10781"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10781"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10781\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10788,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10781\/revisions\/10788"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}