{"id":46545,"date":"2022-10-03T22:00:40","date_gmt":"2022-10-03T21:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=46545"},"modified":"2022-10-03T12:59:47","modified_gmt":"2022-10-03T11:59:47","slug":"blackpool-balloon-710-saved-to-join-the-collection-at-sandtoft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=46545","title":{"rendered":"Blackpool Balloon 710 saved \u2013 to join the collection at Sandtoft"},"content":{"rendered":"

Another of the Fleetwood Heritage Leisure Trust collection of Blackpool trams has been rescued \u2013 and its one which should please most Blackpool tram enthusiasts as it is Balloon 710<\/strong>. The tram \u2013 made famous for its part in killing Alan Bradley in Coronation Street way back in December 1989 \u2013 is to be preserved at the Trolleybus Museum at Sandtoft where it will be put on display.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Built in 1934 and numbered 247<\/strong>, the tram was originally an Open Top Luxury Dreadnought before it was fully enclosed in 1941. By 1989 it had spent over 50 years in service when its biggest claim to fame came into being with it selected to be the tram which dealt the fatal blow to Alan Bradley as he ran across the tram tracks outside the Strand Hotel chasing Rita Fairclough. It would run 18 years before it was withdrawn from service at the end of the 2007 season, by which time it was in a coat of Metro Coastlines Magenta and Yellow.<\/p>\n

The Fleetwood Heritage Leisure Trust preserved the tram and its last public appearance came in 2011 when it was transported through the streets of Fleetwood as part of that year\u2019s Tram Sunday event. It has since been in outside storage and remains at Wyre Dock with other members of the Trust\u2019s tram collection \u2013 all of which are looking for new homes with plans to build a museum in the town having not got off the ground and the area in the dock they are housed required for development later this year.<\/p>\n

The Trolleybus Museum at Sandtoft have now been confirmed as the new owners of the tram and they plan to put it on static display. It will be the third tram body on site with the lower saloons of two Sheffield trams also at the museum.<\/p>\n

After over 10 years of outside storage the condition of 710 has significantly deteriorated and it will require careful transportation when it makes the trip to Sandtoft. It should depart Fleetwood later this year.<\/p>\n

This will leave Centenary Car 641<\/strong>, Twin Car 673+683<\/strong> and Ex-Towing Railcoach 678<\/strong> at Wyre Dock looking for new homes. Although 678<\/strong> had previously been said to be heading to the East Anglia Transport Museum it now looks like this won\u2019t be happening judging by the latest news posted on the Tramtalk website. If no new owners can be found for these trams they will be scrapped.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Another of the Fleetwood Heritage Leisure Trust collection of Blackpool trams has been rescued \u2013 and its one which should please most Blackpool tram enthusiasts as it is Balloon 710. The tram \u2013 made famous for its part in killing … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12,102],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46545"}],"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=46545"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46545\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46546,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46545\/revisions\/46546"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=46545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=46545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=46545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}