{"id":46399,"date":"2022-09-17T22:00:05","date_gmt":"2022-09-17T21:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=46399"},"modified":"2022-09-16T07:23:56","modified_gmt":"2022-09-16T06:23:56","slug":"standard-143-back-out-on-test-again-in-blackpool","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=46399","title":{"rendered":"Standard 143 back out on test again in Blackpool"},"content":{"rendered":"

The road to a return to service for Blackpool Standard 143<\/strong> has been far from smooth. With it failing on its maiden voyage back in 2019 and then seeing delays in repair works needed following this failure it has made the project to return it to the rails a rather protracted affair. However, there is a light at the end of the tunnel (all be it a fairly distant one!) as it was seen on test on the Promenade once more on Wednesday 14th<\/sup> September.<\/p>\n

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The fault experienced back in 2019 was traced back to one of its motors which needed replacing. Unfortunately, it wasn\u2019t possible to replace this in other way than taking one of the motors from its sister Standard Car, 147<\/strong>. This was done over the winter and it appeared that it may return to service earlier this year but during testing and mileage accumulation further issues were discovered, delaying its hoped for Easter 2022 relaunch.<\/p>\n

The tram has been in the Fitting Shop at Rigby Road for some time and has probably been photographed hundreds of times in the corner of this building by visitors to Tramtown. It has not been the case that nothing has been happening though as there has been attention undertaken which enabled it to be sent back out on test.<\/p>\n

143<\/strong> ran Depot-Cabin-Pleasure Beach-Foxhall-Depot in its first moves outside the depot for several months. The Fylde Transport Trust have confirmed that this was part of the final test runs after the final major items had been removed from the snag list. The test was declared a success and as a result the ram will now be passed over to the Operation team at Blackpool Heritage Tram Tours for mileage accumulation and driver training.<\/p>\n

There do still remain some items on the snag list which need to be attended to but these will be completed alongside the mileage accumulation as they are not considered to be major issues.<\/p>\n

As part of the agreement between the Fylde Transport Trust (who own the tram) and Blackpool Transport (as operators of the tramway) 143<\/strong> will now undergo mileage accumulation and it is only after the succesful completion of this that it will be cleared for an entry into service. When this is completed a relaunch date will be announced by the FTT, initially on their Facebook page.<\/p>\n