{"id":4935,"date":"2013-08-25T19:13:26","date_gmt":"2013-08-25T18:13:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=4935"},"modified":"2013-08-27T20:25:11","modified_gmt":"2013-08-27T19:25:11","slug":"bank-holiday-boating-in-blackpool","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=4935","title":{"rendered":"Bank Holiday boating in Blackpool"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The fourth and final long Bank Holiday weekend &#8216;heritage&#8217; tram operation in Blackpool got underway on Saturday 24th August, with a varied selection of trams appearing in service over the course of the weekend. However, thanks in no small part to some glorious weather, it was the Boats that stole the show, with car <strong>602<\/strong> in particular gaining much admiration following a recent repaint.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Saturday 24th August saw Centenary cars<strong> 642<\/strong> and <strong>648<\/strong> both in service; the first time that two members of this class had been used simultaneously since November 2011. Joining them were <strong>Open Boat 230<\/strong> and <strong>Brush car 631<\/strong>, and during the day all four trams managed a run to Fleetwood. Although never that popular when on front line service, the change in status for the Centenary cars was emphasised when<strong> 648<\/strong> left people behind on its first run to Fleetwood! Later in the day, <strong>642<\/strong> joined <strong>230<\/strong> for the third and final heritage tour to the Ferry and incredibly, both trams were carrying full capacity loads.<\/p>\n<p>Sunday 25th August was billed as the &#8216;Boat Bonanza&#8217; and it certainly didn&#8217;t disappoint, with all three Boat cars still in Blackpool in use as well as <strong>&#8216;Princess Alice&#8217;<\/strong> <strong>706<\/strong>. This included <strong>Boat 602<\/strong> which had not operated since the end of the 2010 season, and has recently been transformed with a stunning coat of red and cream paint. The tram has also regained its original fleet number of <strong>227<\/strong>, which it carries above the centre doors on the roof canopy.\u00a0Despite some minor issues with its lights which required a fitter&#8217;s attention early on, <strong>602<\/strong> managed to complete a full day in service, concluding with a run to Fleetwood in tandem with sister car <strong>600<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>It is anticipated that <strong>227<\/strong>\/<strong>602<\/strong> will be out again on the Bank Holiday Monday, 26th August along with various other historic trams such as <strong>Bolton 66<\/strong>, <strong>Centenary car 648<\/strong> and <strong>Twin set 272+T2<\/strong>, bringing the curtain down on a highly successful year of daytime heritage tram operation. However, there should be some further opportunities to ride on at least some of these cars as illumination tours resume on Sunday 1st September and should see members of the heritage fleet supporting the trio of feature cars as required.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_4944\" style=\"width: 650px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?attachment_id=4944\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-4944\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4944\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-large wp-image-4944\" title=\"P1140293\" src=\"http:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/P1140293-1024x673.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"420\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/P1140293-1024x673.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/P1140293-550x361.jpg 550w, https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/P1140293.jpg 1606w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-4944\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The stunning Boat car 602 - sorry, 227 - in all its glory at Pleasure Beach during its first weekend back in service following its repaint into cream and red. (Photo by Andrew Waddington)<\/p><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The fourth and final long Bank Holiday weekend &#8216;heritage&#8217; tram operation in Blackpool got underway on Saturday 24th August, with a varied selection of trams appearing in service over the course of the weekend. However, thanks in no small part &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=4935\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4935"}],"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=4935"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4935\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4946,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4935\/revisions\/4946"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}