{"id":52243,"date":"2024-01-03T21:00:26","date_gmt":"2024-01-03T21:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=52243"},"modified":"2024-01-03T19:41:31","modified_gmt":"2024-01-03T19:41:31","slug":"in-pictures-fts-christmas-tour-and-illumination-tours-in-blackpool","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=52243","title":{"rendered":"In Pictures: FTS Christmas Tour and Illumination Tours in Blackpool"},"content":{"rendered":"

Saturday 30th<\/sup> December 2023 saw the annual Fylde Tramway Society Christmas Tour which ended up using the Illuminated Frigate HMS Blackpool<\/strong> and Balloon 700<\/strong> on a complete system tour. On the same day, Balloon 717 was in use on Illumination Tour duty and all three trams feature in this pictorial article courtesy of Scott Spencer.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The FTS tour started with the Frigate<\/strong> running from Starr Gate Depot north to Little Bispham and after a return trip to Starr Gate it was all the way to Fleetwood Ferry. The Frigate<\/strong> ended its day of action with a run back south and after dropping off passengers at the Solaris Centre it was into depot and a tram swap. After a break Balloon 700<\/strong> came out and Starr Gate-Bispham-Starr Gate-Foxhall-Pleasure Beach-Cleveleys-Solaris Centre and then back into depot.<\/p>\n

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The Frigate stands on Fleetwood Esplanade during a brief break in the FTS Tour.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Another shot of the Illuminated feature car as it pauses at Bispham.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Balloon 700 \u2013 still with Christmas decorations in situ for its use on the Mini Festive Tours \u2013 at Harrow Place not long out of depot.<\/p><\/div>\n

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700 again, this time at Pleasure Beach.<\/p><\/div>\n

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And completing the trio of heritage trams out was Balloon 717 which was being used for Illumination Tours. Pleasure Beach loop. (All Photographs by Scott Spencer, 30th December 2023)<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Saturday 30th December 2023 saw the annual Fylde Tramway Society Christmas Tour which ended up using the Illuminated Frigate HMS Blackpool and Balloon 700 on a complete system tour. On the same day, Balloon 717 was in use on Illumination … 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":[7,28],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52243"}],"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=52243"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52243\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52249,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52243\/revisions\/52249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=52243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=52243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=52243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}