{"id":4875,"date":"2013-08-22T15:37:13","date_gmt":"2013-08-22T14:37:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=4875"},"modified":"2013-08-22T19:46:51","modified_gmt":"2013-08-22T18:46:51","slug":"blackpool-boat-233-to-set-sail-for-the-usa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=4875","title":{"rendered":"Blackpool ‘Boat’ 233 to set sail for the USA"},"content":{"rendered":"

It has come to light that the Lancastrian Transport Trust’s preserved Blackpool ‘Boat’ car\u00a0233<\/strong> is shortly set to leave the UK for a new home in San Francisco, after being sold to a new owner overseas. The tram is currently based at Beamish Museum, where it has been operating since April 2012, with sponsorship from British Trams Online<\/em>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

233<\/strong> (or 605<\/strong> as many still prefer to call it) was the only Boat car to be offered for sale by Blackpool Transport as part of their fleet cull, and was quickly snapped up by the LTT for a relatively modest sum. It is believed that the tram has now been re-sold for a considerably larger amount of money, and is expected to be prepared for departure within the next few weeks before it leaves British shores forever,\u00a0to start a new life in America. There, the tram is expected to receive some modifications so that it can be made fully wheelchair accessible, similar to sister car 228<\/strong>, also preserved in the USA.<\/p>\n

The news of 233<\/strong>‘s sale has come as a massive shock and a major disappointment to us here at British Trams Online<\/em>, as we were not made aware of the plans to sell the tram by either its owners. This is in spite of both Gareth Prior and Andrew Waddington being made ‘shareholders’ in the car by the LTT as a gesture to show gratitude for our financial support towards the repainting of the tram in its original livery. Indeed, our sponsorship deal on 233<\/strong> is still valid as the contract was for a two year period, commencing in\u00a0April 2012 (although incidentally our promotional poster was not applied until several months later).\u00a0The LTT\u00a0has not yet made an official announcement regarding the\u00a0sale of the tram,\u00a0and it was instead left to the enthusiast press and third party organisations to break this very unwelcome news. Naturally, as well as ourselves, Beamish Museum are extremely disappointed to be losing a popular tram from their operating fleet, having invested their own funds in its upkeep, and this is also a blow to the many enthusiasts who would surely have preferred the tram to remain in its home country.<\/p>\n

233<\/strong>‘s last day in service at Beamish is expected to occur during the forthcoming ‘Power from the Past’ event, probably on Sunday 1st September. The writer of this article has now spoken with Beamish Museum’s Keeper of Transport, Paul Jarman,\u00a0and our relationship remains a positive one; however we are still waiting to hear from the LTT at the time of writing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It has come to light that the Lancastrian Transport Trust’s preserved Blackpool ‘Boat’ car\u00a0233 is shortly set to leave the UK for a new home in San Francisco, after being sold to a new owner overseas. The tram is currently … 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":[4,15],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4875"}],"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=4875"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4875\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4895,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4875\/revisions\/4895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}