{"id":2325,"date":"2012-11-15T19:55:24","date_gmt":"2012-11-15T19:55:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=2325"},"modified":"2012-11-15T19:55:24","modified_gmt":"2012-11-15T19:55:24","slug":"the-value-of-an-art-deco-brush-car","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=2325","title":{"rendered":"The value of an art deco Brush car"},"content":{"rendered":"

The fate of preserved Blackpool Brush Railcoach 298<\/strong> has been a subject of great discontent amongst many tram enthusiasts for quite some time. A meeting held by the Tramway Museum Society earlier this year included some discussion on the future of this tram, but unfortunately the outcome was not as positive as many would have liked it to be. It would seem that the day when 298<\/strong> will carry passengers again is a long way off, despite a huge amount of work already being undertaken on it.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Back in the 1970s, 298<\/strong> was acquired for preservation to ensure that one of the Brush cars would remain in largely original condition, whilst its sisters remaining in Blackpool were progressively modernised over the years. A small group of enthusiasts set about restoring the tram, complete with many original fittings such as the sliding roof panels. This was a slow process with mimimal manpower, but a lot was achieved over the next few decades in various locations. In 2005, the car moved to Crich where it was expected that work would be completed so that it could operate at the museum – but instead the project has stalled, and 298<\/strong> continues to languish in the depot to this day.<\/p>\n

The Blackpool Railcoach Fund currently holds \u00a3145,000 in a special restricted fund which can only be spent on car 298<\/strong>. However, the Tramway Museum Society believe that this will be insufficient to complete the restoration of the car – a recent estimate provided by the Board member responsible for the workshop indicates that this could cost anywhere between \u00a3300,000 and \u00a3500,000. It seems difficult to believe such a massive figure is required when so much time and money has already been invested in the tram, and it is also worth noting that Marton VAMBAC 11<\/strong> – a similar tram with far more complex equipment – was restored at East Anglia at considerably less cost. As quite a few people feel that there are already enough, or too many, operational Blackpool trams at Crich it will be very difficult to raise the extra money needed to finish this project and so 298 is likely to remain in limbo for the forseeable future.<\/p>\n

The current state of 298<\/strong> is made all the more tragic as it was initially preserved privately, and only later on was it donated to the TMS. Had this not happened, the option would exist to transfer 298<\/strong> elsewhere, along with the money already raised to aid its restoration. A Brush car in original art deco condition would undoubtedly be a fantastic addition to Blackpool’s own heritage tram fleet, and would be equally popular in any other museum.<\/p>\n

Incidentally, two other organisations have long-term aspirations to return a Blackpool Brush Railcoach to ‘as-built’ condition. The Lancastrian Transport Trust have acquired ex-Permanent Way car 259<\/strong> for this purpose, as like 298<\/strong> it has retained some of its original features due to its early withdrawal from passenger service. The Fleetwood Heritage Leisure Trust have also expressed a desire to restore the pioneer Brush car, 621<\/strong>, to 1930s appearance. Of course, neither group has the benefit of \u00a3145,000 to spend on their trams – but perhaps one of them could well turn this dream into a reality whilst 298<\/strong> remains in storage?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The fate of preserved Blackpool Brush Railcoach 298 has been a subject of great discontent amongst many tram enthusiasts for quite some time. A meeting held by the Tramway Museum Society earlier this year included some discussion on the future … 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":[8],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2325"}],"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=2325"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2325\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2326,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2325\/revisions\/2326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}