{"id":3580,"date":"2013-04-26T19:53:30","date_gmt":"2013-04-26T18:53:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=3580"},"modified":"2013-04-26T19:55:21","modified_gmt":"2013-04-26T18:55:21","slug":"historic-blackpool-trams-moved-to-starr-gate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=3580","title":{"rendered":"Historic Blackpool trams moved to Starr Gate"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a surprise move, two of Blackpool’s heritage trams have been transferred to Starr Gate depot, along with at least one of the modified ‘B Fleet’ Balloon cars. The two oldest native trams in the fleet, Fleetwood Box car 40<\/strong> and Standard 147<\/strong>, have both been moved along with Balloon 713<\/strong>, although the reason for these movements currently remains a mystery.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

With most maintenance work on the heritage trams still being undertaken at Rigby Road, there is normally little reason for these trams to visit Starr Gate and as the company seem reluctant to send them there in passenger service, seeing vintage trams on New South Promenade is now an extreme rarity. However, Box 40<\/strong> did exactly that on the morning of Friday 26th April. To add further novelty value, the car was towed onto the promenade before its trolley was raised on arrival at Foxhall, confirming that the tram was not defective, and it was then driven to Starr Gate and stabled at the front of the modern depot, on the line closest to the adjacent platforms. Here it was parked in front of cars 147<\/strong> and 713<\/strong>, both of which were already in place, although it is not known exactly\u00a0how long either tram has been there. The reasoning behind the decision to tow Box 40<\/strong> out of Rigby Road depot is also a mystery.<\/p>\n

One possibility is that the trams may have moved to Starr Gate in connection with a planned tour of the depot by members of the Fylde Tramway Society next weekend, as part of their annual convention weekend. A strictly limited number of places were made available solely to members of the Society, although demand was expected to be considerable as few members of the public have ever seen inside the building. Several members of the ‘B Fleet’ have spent time at this depot and perhaps 713<\/strong> is there for routine servicing, ahead of anticipated use over the May Day Bank Holiday weekend. Whilst 147<\/strong> was previously displayed at Starr Gate depot for the Flexity2 launch event in 2011, this is believed to car 40<\/strong>‘s first visit to the new depot although the oldest tram to be housed there remains Cardiff 131<\/strong> during its loan period from the National Tramway Museum over winter 2011\/12.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a surprise move, two of Blackpool’s heritage trams have been transferred to Starr Gate depot, along with at least one of the modified ‘B Fleet’ Balloon cars. The two oldest native trams in the fleet, Fleetwood Box car 40 … 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\/3580"}],"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=3580"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3580\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3582,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3580\/revisions\/3582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}