{"id":51910,"date":"2023-12-06T21:00:49","date_gmt":"2023-12-06T21:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=51910"},"modified":"2023-12-06T19:32:19","modified_gmt":"2023-12-06T19:32:19","slug":"final-trams-leave-wyre-dock","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=51910","title":{"rendered":"Final trams leave Wyre Dock"},"content":{"rendered":"

A line can finally be drawn under the dream of creating a tram museum and attraction in Fleetwood (although its been known for some time it wouldn\u2019t be happening) with the final intact trams being removed from Wyre Dock \u2013 from the storage compound which has been home to a number of trams since 2013 \u2013 in early December. There were just two trams remaining and its now been confirmed that privately owned Brush 637<\/strong> has been scrapped whilst both cars of Twin Set 673+683<\/strong> have been moved off site for a new life.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The owner of 637<\/strong> had been looking for a new home for the single deck Railcoach \u2013 which had kept its old Blackpool Zoo advert livery throughout its time in preservation \u2013 but ultimately this wasn\u2019t to be and so with deadlines to clear the site the tram was scrapped on site. It had been known for some time that the tram would need to be moved, and at one stage the Fleetwood Heritage Leisure Trust had said that the site needed to be cleared during 2022.<\/p>\n

Some parts of 637<\/strong> have been salvaged by enthusiasts and will hopefully aid other restoration projects across the country which will eventually see other trams return to the rails. The scrapping of the tram took place over the weekend of 2nd<\/sup>\/3rd<\/sup> December 2023.<\/p>\n

637<\/strong> had entered service in September 1937 and would remain in service on the Blackpool Tramway until 2004 when it ran for the last time and was officially stored that winter. It remained stored at Rigby Road until 2011 when it initially moved to Merseyside as one of the trams which had been acquired by Merseytravel for their ambitious plans for an extended tramway in Birkenhead. Obviously these never came to fruition and 637<\/strong> was purchased by a private individual in 2015 at which point it was moved to Wyre Dock for storage. And that is where it stayed until scrapping.<\/p>\n

Just a few days after 637<\/strong> met its maker, then the final tram on site was removed. This was Twin Car 673+683<\/strong> which left on the back of a couple of low loaders after new owners were found. Its been reported that they will be used as a classroom although this has yet to be confirmed.<\/p>\n

Becoming a Twin Car in June 1961, the permanently coupled tram survived in service for long enough to enjoy mini overhauls and a repaint into Metro Coastlines livery (Turquoise and Yellow version). It ran its last in 2010 and was purchased by another private individual who placed the trams on permanent loan to the Fleetwood Heritage Leisure Trust who took ownership when the owner passed away. They will now go in history as the last trams to leave Wyre Dock.<\/p>\n

And that is it! There are now no more trams to be found stored at Wyre Dock. The Fleetwood Heritage Leisure Trust started off with laudable aims to create an attraction using trams in the town but unfortunately due to a number of factors these never came off and so the trams have lingered on in outside storage waiting for someone to come along and take them away or, in the case of three, for the scrapman to bring an end.<\/p>\n

Over the years the site has been home to a large number of trams \u2013 this has included Brush Cars 625<\/strong> and 637<\/strong>, Centenary Cars 641<\/strong> and 643<\/strong>, Twin Car 673+683<\/strong>, Railcoach 678<\/strong>, Trailer Car 687<\/strong> and Balloons 710<\/strong> and 726<\/strong>. Of these several have brighter futures and can be classed as preserved (625<\/strong>, 710<\/strong>, 726<\/strong>) whilst others have become classrooms (673+683<\/strong> and 687<\/strong>) and others have been scrapped (including 637<\/strong>, 641<\/strong> and 678<\/strong>).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A line can finally be drawn under the dream of creating a tram museum and attraction in Fleetwood (although its been known for some time it wouldn\u2019t be happening) with the final intact trams being removed from Wyre Dock \u2013 … 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":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51910"}],"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=51910"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51910\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51911,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51910\/revisions\/51911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=51910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=51910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=51910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}