{"id":10935,"date":"2015-04-14T15:11:28","date_gmt":"2015-04-14T15:11:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=10935"},"modified":"2015-04-14T15:11:28","modified_gmt":"2015-04-14T15:11:28","slug":"in-pictures-balloon-701-on-tour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=10935","title":{"rendered":"In Pictures: Balloon 701 on tour"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Saturday 11th April, a group of railway enthusiasts hired Blackpool Balloon 701 <\/strong>for a full system tour, with all proceeds being generously donated to the Blackpool Heritage Trust. This included use of various different turnback points and the novelty of a double deck tram ride to and from Starr Gate, still a relative rarity for the heritage fleet.<\/p>\n

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Before the day of the tour there had been some doubt that 701 <\/strong>would be available as it had been suffering from compressor defects and its only day of public service in 2015 had been cut short with the tram being dispatched back to the depot after the aforementioned fault relapsed. However, after being fitted with a freshly overhauled compressor, 701 <\/strong>was declared fit to run and managed to complete a full day’s work – indeed it was then chosen for use on the blue heritage service the following day alongside Brush car 631<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

However, the Saturday did not pass entirely without incident as ‘Princess Alice’ 706 <\/strong>had to be towed back to Rigby Road at the end of the afternoon by Balloon 717 <\/strong>after its trolley head became detached. 706 <\/strong>had actually been sent out after lunchtime as a replacement for Centenary car 648 <\/strong>thanks to an improvement in the weather, giving the chance to see three Balloon cars running together, including open top and enclosed variants in the 1930s style livery.<\/p>\n

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Shortly before midday on 11th April, and 701 is seen on arrival at North Pier for the start of the tour with Centenary car 648 on the heritage service in front - bringing back memories of 1991 when both trams were painted in the same liveries as those which they carry now.<\/p><\/div>\n

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A real treat for Balloon car fans as 701, 706 and 717 all meet at Pleasure Beach against a gorgeous blue sky.<\/p><\/div>\n

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701's tour included two trips to Fleetwood; here it is pictured outside the Ferry cafe on the first.<\/p><\/div>\n

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On the return leg from Fleetwood, 701 unloaded its passengers at Bispham before performing an unusual shunt move from the southbound line onto the centre track where it was stabled for a crew meal break before continuing south.<\/p><\/div>\n

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One of the day's highlights was a trip to Starr Gate aboard 701, and so our final picture shows the tram standing at the southern terminus. (Photos x 5 by Rob Bray)<\/p><\/div>\n

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On Saturday 11th April, a group of railway enthusiasts hired Blackpool Balloon 701 for a full system tour, with all proceeds being generously donated to the Blackpool Heritage Trust. This included use of various different turnback points and the novelty … 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":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10935"}],"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=10935"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10935\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10942,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10935\/revisions\/10942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}