{"id":15781,"date":"2016-11-17T19:42:51","date_gmt":"2016-11-17T18:42:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=15781"},"modified":"2016-11-17T19:42:51","modified_gmt":"2016-11-17T18:42:51","slug":"picture-in-time-blackpool-balloon-709","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=15781","title":{"rendered":"Picture in Time: Blackpool Balloon 709"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Over the years many trams in Blackpool have seen all over adverts applied; some have received adverts pleasing to the eye whilst others have been, shall we say, a bit less attractive. Today\u2019s focus of Picture in Time is one of those trams which has carried many liveries over the years \u2013 <strong>Balloon 709<\/strong> with this being one of the designs for Sealife.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><strong>709<\/strong> was built by English Electric in 1934 entering service on 2nd October of that year in its original open top condition. It was enclosed at the end of 1941 and continued operating in Blackpool with a few minor alterations until it was withdrawn from service to be overhauled which saw it rebuilt with a flat front returning to service like this in April 2000.<\/p>\n<p>The tram received its first all over advert as late as 1994 (for Pontins) and this photo shows the second advert <strong>709<\/strong> carried \u2013 and the first of four different designs for Sealife. Applied at the start of the 2005 season the tram featured extensive contravision \u2013 a topic as controversial in 2005 as it seems to be today suggesting it isn\u2019t going anywhere anytime soon! \u2013 and if nothing else was certainly eye catching.<\/p>\n<p>In this photo we see <strong>709<\/strong> at the Tower on 15th July 2005 whilst working through to Fleetwood.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_15782\" style=\"width: 560px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?attachment_id=15782\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-15782\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-15782\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-15782\" title=\"709-am\" src=\"http:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/709-am-550x412.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"550\" height=\"412\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/709-am-550x412.jpg 550w, https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/709-am-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/709-am.jpg 1229w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 550px) 100vw, 550px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-15782\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photograph by Alasdair MacFarlane<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Over the years many trams in Blackpool have seen all over adverts applied; some have received adverts pleasing to the eye whilst others have been, shall we say, a bit less attractive. Today\u2019s focus of Picture in Time is one &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=15781\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7,35],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15781"}],"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\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15781"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15781\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15784,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15781\/revisions\/15784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}