{"id":51615,"date":"2023-11-19T14:00:14","date_gmt":"2023-11-19T14:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=51615"},"modified":"2023-11-19T10:48:21","modified_gmt":"2023-11-19T10:48:21","slug":"in-pictures-the-forgotten-blackpool-brush-car","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=51615","title":{"rendered":"In Pictures: The forgotten Blackpool Brush Car?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>With Brush Cars in the news again recently following the move of the Fylde Transport Trust\u2019s <strong>634<\/strong> from Blackpool to the East Anglia Transport Museum we now take a look at what could be described as the forgotten Blackpool Brush Car. <strong>626<\/strong> was one of three of the single deck Railcoaches to undergo a major overhaul in the 1990s featuring some modern features but whereas the other two (<strong>630<\/strong> and <strong>631<\/strong>) have enjoyed a secure future since, this tram has not been so lucky.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Repainted into a smart green and cream livery it was somewhat of a surprise when <strong>626<\/strong> was sold to Merseytravel who were acquiring a number of trams for their ambitious proposals under the Wirral Waters banner which would have seen an extended tramway serve it. Although initially transferred to the Wirral Heritage Tramway it would never be destined to carry passengers there and would eventually depart from the site and move to storage.<\/p>\n<p><strong>626<\/strong> \u2013 which had ownership transferred to Peel Holdings \u2013 has been in outside storage on Birkenhead Docks for over five years now and sadly, as with anything stored in the open, those five years have not been kind to the tram. As well as the expected deterioration as a result of being exposed to the elements it has also been subject to vandalism with the majority of the windows now smashed.<\/p>\n<p>Development work at the Docks is continuing and is growing ever closer to <strong>626<\/strong>. What the future holds for the tram remains uncertain.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_51616\" style=\"width: 560px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?attachment_id=51616\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-51616\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-51616\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-51616\" src=\"http:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/626-pr-550x413.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"550\" height=\"413\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/626-pr-550x413.jpg 550w, https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/626-pr-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/626-pr-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/626-pr.jpg 1290w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 550px) 100vw, 550px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-51616\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">An aerial view of 626 at the Docks showing the current condition of the car. (Photograph by Paul Redfern, 10th November 2023)<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With Brush Cars in the news again recently following the move of the Fylde Transport Trust\u2019s 634 from Blackpool to the East Anglia Transport Museum we now take a look at what could be described as the forgotten Blackpool Brush &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=51615\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/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],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51615"}],"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=51615"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51615\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51617,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51615\/revisions\/51617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=51615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=51615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=51615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}