{"id":12824,"date":"2015-10-20T15:50:54","date_gmt":"2015-10-20T14:50:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=12824"},"modified":"2015-10-20T15:50:54","modified_gmt":"2015-10-20T14:50:54","slug":"princess-alice-set-to-retire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=12824","title":{"rendered":"‘Princess Alice’ set to retire"},"content":{"rendered":"

Blackpool Heritage Tram Tours have confirmed that the unique open-top Blackpool Balloon car, ‘Princess Alice’ 706<\/strong>, will be withdrawn from service at the end of the 2015 illuminations season. The tram has operated for three decades since it was restored as an open-top car and is now due for workshop attention again, so will be retired until resources are available to carry out this work.<\/p>\n

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706 <\/strong>has undoubtedly been one of the most popular trams in the Blackpool fleet since it was restored in its current form in 1985. Since 2012 it has been a regular performer on the heritage tram tours and this year in particular it has seen very extensive use, recently operating daytime promenade runs at weekends followed by illumination tours in the evening on a number of occasions. However, all this has inevitably taken its toll and 706<\/strong>‘s condition has deteriorated to the extent that the tram is now definitely in need of some TLC, with the upper deck looking particularly tired. Therefore, it will be temporarily withdrawn from use next month with a view to undertaking an overhaul on the tram, hopefully before too long. It will be the subject of a full assessment so that the likely extent of work required to return it to an immaculate condition can be determined and costed. Hopefully this will allow 706 <\/strong>to be\u00a0accommodated\u00a0in the works before too long, and perhaps enthusiasts will have the opportunity to contribute financially towards its overhaul?<\/p>\n

For anyone who would like to say farewell to ‘Princess Alice’ before she is retired, it has also been revealed that an enhanced weekend of heritage operation is planned for the final weekend of this year’s illuminations, Saturday 7th & Sunday 8th November. It is expected that 706 <\/strong>will take centre stage, subject of course to availability and suitable weather!<\/p>\n

Naturally the withdrawal of such a popular vintage tram for any length of time is an emotive subject, but rest assured the decision made is a necessary one for the future welfare of car 706 <\/strong>and we are optimistic that it will run again as soon as this is practical. In the meantime, thoughts are already turning towards some other exciting projects involving trams in the heritage fleet which will hopefully go some way towards compensating for the loss of ‘Alice’, and although there have been some claims about what these could be online, we will not be commenting on this here until anything is confirmed through the official channels. Watch this space!<\/p>\n

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A typical scene from Blackpool in summer 2015 with open top Balloon 706 at North Pier whilst operating heritage tours on an enhanced 'gold' event day, during what is now confirmed to be its last season of use ahead of withdrawal for a major overhaul. (Photo by Andrew Waddington)<\/p><\/div>\n

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Blackpool Heritage Tram Tours have confirmed that the unique open-top Blackpool Balloon car, ‘Princess Alice’ 706, will be withdrawn from service at the end of the 2015 illuminations season. The tram has operated for three decades since it was restored … 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\/12824"}],"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=12824"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12824\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12827,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12824\/revisions\/12827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}