{"id":47207,"date":"2022-11-22T21:00:57","date_gmt":"2022-11-22T21:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=47207"},"modified":"2022-11-22T19:44:18","modified_gmt":"2022-11-22T19:44:18","slug":"in-pictures-balloon-715-runs-a-farewell-tour-in-blackpool","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=47207","title":{"rendered":"In Pictures: Balloon 715 runs a farewell tour in Blackpool"},"content":{"rendered":"

Blackpool Balloon 715<\/strong> \u2013 owned by the Fylde Transport Trust \u2013 is now officially withdrawn from service after running a special Farewell Tour during the afternoon and evening of Saturday 19th<\/sup> November 2022. It had been announced during the summer that a mutual decision had been reached by the FTT and Blackpool Transport Services to take the tram out of service and put it on static display at Tramtown and this special tour was the last chance to both ride and see the double decker out on the Promenade.<\/p>\n

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Departing from Hopton Road in the early afternoon 715<\/strong> got to traverse the entire length of the Blackpool Tramway from Fleetwood in the north and Starr Gate in the south. This included many rarely covered sections of the tramway such as the Thornton Gate centre line and various lines through Starr Gate Depot. The tour \u2013 which included a break during the early evening to allow participants to either do either afternoon or evening or both! \u2013 concluded with a tour through the illuminations before it returned to Hopton Road and then the depot once more.<\/p>\n

The decision to withdraw 715<\/strong> has been taken as it due some major workshop attention having not enjoyed a full overhaul for a number of decades. With the FTT having a plethora of projects they wish to progress 715<\/strong> will not go through the works for some time and so it will go on static display at Rigby Road Depot so anyone who enjoys a Tramtown tour will still be able to see the popular second series Balloon Car, albeit not with it running anymore. As with all FTT owned trams situated at Tramtown it has received a label in its window to make it clear who owns the tram and where you can go and get more information.<\/p>\n

The withdrawal of 715 means that the FTT currently have only one operational tramcar \u2013 Brush 621<\/strong>. But its hoped that position will change in the near future with work at different stages in the restorations of Standard 143<\/strong>, Brush 634<\/strong>, Coronation 304<\/strong> and Railcoach 279<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

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Passengers get ready to board the tram on Hopton Road at the start of its final tour.<\/p><\/div>\n

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To Fleetwood one last time as it stands on Bold Street.<\/p><\/div>\n

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An interior view of the upper deck.<\/p><\/div>\n

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And the lower deck.<\/p><\/div>\n

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715 seen standing at the end of the line at Starr Gate.<\/p><\/div>\n

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A close-up of the destination blind showing \u201cRESERVED\u201d.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Corporation crest and number.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Back in the depot standing alongside sister car 717. (All Photographs by Ryan Hartley, 19th November 2022)<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Blackpool Balloon 715 \u2013 owned by the Fylde Transport Trust \u2013 is now officially withdrawn from service after running a special Farewell Tour during the afternoon and evening of Saturday 19th November 2022. It had been announced during the summer … 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":[7,15],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47207"}],"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=47207"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47207\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47216,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47207\/revisions\/47216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=47207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=47207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=47207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}