{"id":47067,"date":"2022-11-10T22:00:50","date_gmt":"2022-11-10T22:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=47067"},"modified":"2022-11-10T20:05:56","modified_gmt":"2022-11-10T20:05:56","slug":"all-change-balloon-710-to-return-to-rigby-road-and-not-head-to-sandtoft-after-all","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=47067","title":{"rendered":"All change! Balloon 710 to return to Rigby Road and not head to Sandtoft after all"},"content":{"rendered":"

Back at the start of October it was confirmed that Blackpool Balloon 710<\/strong> would be heading to Lincolnshire where it would become a children\u2019s play are the Trolleybus Museum at Sandtoft. But it appears a month is not only a long-time in politics but also in the heritage transport sector! For it has now been announced that it will not be going to Sandtoft after all but will be heading to home to Rigby Road where it is to go on static display at the burgeoning Tramtown attraction.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Its not known what is behind this about turn but as things stand now the tram is set to return to Rigby Road later this month \u2013 a film crew from Blackpool Television have recently been to Wyre Dock to film a segment with Blackpool Transport staff in preparation for the launch of an appeal to raise funds for this move.<\/p>\n

710<\/strong> was last at Rigby Road in 2011 (having last run in 2007) when it was transported to Fleetwood having been acquired on behalf on the Fleetwood Heritage Leisure Trust at a time when they had plans to create a museum in the town. It has been in outside storage for over 11 years now and the condition of the tram has suffered during that time both structurally as well as cosmetically. It currently retains a faded Metro Coastlines Magenta and Yellow livery.<\/p>\n

Of course, 710<\/strong> has a major claim to fame and could be possibly be the most famous Blackpool tram of all, especially for people of a certain age who were avid watchers of Coronation Street in the late 1980s. In an episode broadcast in December 1989 the dastardly Alan Bradley was \u201chit and killed\u201d by the tram outside the Strand Hotel on North Promenade \u2013 more than 26 million watched the episode. Because of this its often known as the Alan Bradley tram and its for that reason that it seems that Tramtown have decided to take the tram on.<\/p>\n

There are no plans to return the tram to service but it is expected to be cosmetically restored and then put on display at Tramtown. With many visitors to Blackpool still asking about the Alan Bradley tram once this work is done and its on display it is sure to be an attraction in its own right.<\/p>\n

The change of plan for 710 means that is also a change of plan for Sandtoft. It is anticipated that they will still be getting a Balloon to play its role as a children\u2019s play area but at this time no further details have been made available on which tram it may be. Further news on this is expected to follow in the coming weeks and months.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Back at the start of October it was confirmed that Blackpool Balloon 710 would be heading to Lincolnshire where it would become a children\u2019s play are the Trolleybus Museum at Sandtoft. But it appears a month is not only a … 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":[7,12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47067"}],"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=47067"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47067\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47068,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47067\/revisions\/47068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=47067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=47067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=47067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}