{"id":209,"date":"2012-03-21T20:52:06","date_gmt":"2012-03-21T20:52:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=209"},"modified":"2012-03-21T20:52:06","modified_gmt":"2012-03-21T20:52:06","slug":"rocket-tram-may-return-to-service","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=209","title":{"rendered":"Rocket tram may return to service"},"content":{"rendered":"

Plans are afoot for one of Blackpool\u2019s most popular trams to return to action following a
\ndecade of storage \u2013 the illuminated Rocket 732<\/strong>. Blackpool Tourism Councillor Graham Cain is keen that this iconic tram should be able to play some part in the centenary of the Blackpool illuminations later this year, and discussions regarding how this could become a reality have now begun.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

These discussions are involving Blackpool Transport and the Lancastrian Transport
\nTrust, who currently own the tram. The Rocket was withdrawn from regular service after the 1999 illuminations, and has operated just once since then, when it worked a special farewell trip in April 2002 shortly after being donated to the LTT. Since then it has languished in the tram shed at Rigby Road, and along with the rest of the LTT\u2019s collection was even threatened with eviction and possible scrapping last year.<\/p>\n

Bryan Lindop of Blackpool Transport, who led the successful project to attract funding for the restoration of the illuminated Western Train 733+734 <\/strong>and is set to take control of heritage tram operation in the town this year, said: \u201cas part of the Illuminations history it could play a valuable part once again. If it was resurrected as part of the centenary and used as a special exhibition, I\u2019m sure it would attract a lot of attention.\u201d It has already been
\nconfirmed that this anniversary will include the recreation of one of the most popular illuminated tableaux from the past, \u2018Swan Lake\u2019, but if the Rocket tram is able to feature in the year\u2019s events then it will surely steal the show.<\/p>\n

It is not yet clear whether the proposal is for the Rocket to be fully restored to running order, or for it to be merely be made available as a presentable static exhibit for the celebrations. Suggestions were previously made that Blackpool Council may take this car and restore it for operation as a mobile display, rather than a passenger carrier, due to concerns that it may fall foul of modern safety legislation. This has never been confirmed, but the project sadly seemed to be forgotten about once the initial excitement died down. Hopefully this important milestone in the town\u2019s history will be appropriately marked
\nwhilst also helping to promote 732 <\/strong>and the tramway as a whole.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Plans are afoot for one of Blackpool\u2019s most popular trams to return to action following a decade of storage \u2013 the illuminated Rocket 732. Blackpool Tourism Councillor Graham Cain is keen that this iconic tram should be able to play … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7,15],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209"}],"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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=209"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":210,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209\/revisions\/210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}