{"id":59773,"date":"2025-08-21T22:00:16","date_gmt":"2025-08-21T21:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=59773"},"modified":"2025-08-20T22:19:24","modified_gmt":"2025-08-20T21:19:24","slug":"in-pictures-hms-blackpool-and-balloon-717-moved-into-rigby-road-workshop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=59773","title":{"rendered":"In Pictures: HMS Blackpool and Balloon 717 moved into Rigby Road workshop"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>With Blackpool Heritage Tram Tours currently looking at a phased reintroduction, with Illumination Tours due to start in October 2025 in time for Lightpool, a start has been made on the first part of the work needed. This has necessitated a move around of exhibits in the Exhibition part of Tramtown at Rigby Road Depot (the former Fitting Shop) which also doubles as the workshop.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>The first phase of the phased reintroduction requires the trams planned to operate the tours from October (announced as being the <strong>Western Train<\/strong>, <strong>Frigate<\/strong> and a Balloon Car) to be assessed before they can then be moved to Starr Gate Depot. To aid this 22<sup>nd<\/sup> July 2025 saw a bit of a shunt with the <strong>Frigate<\/strong> <em>HMS Blackpool<\/em> and <strong>Balloon 717<\/strong> moved from the main depot building (which remains out of bounds) into the workshop\/Tramtown Exhibition.<\/p>\n<p>By Saturday 16<sup>th<\/sup> August 2025 the two trams remained there and Bolton 66 was also present as we see in these photos below.<\/p>\n<p>As part of the announcement made at the start of July 2025 it was confirmed that several steps would be needed before the heritage trams could return:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>An independent expert will assess the operational worthiness of the trams<\/li>\n<li>New speed restriction technology will be installed<\/li>\n<li>Intensive driver and conductor training<\/li>\n<li>The tracks outside Rigby Road Depot will be inspected and cleaned<\/li>\n<li>Trams to be used will then be moved to Starr Gate Depot where they will be housed and maintained<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The move of the trams into the workshop marks the start of this process with the other stages to follow in the coming months, if all goes as its hoped it will.<\/p>\n<p>Lightpool Festival gets underway from 15<sup>th<\/sup> October. It is planned that once a successful reintroduction of tours has been implemented, Tours of the Illuminations would then continue until the lights go out at the start of January 2026.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The official Tramtown YouTube page has a video of the 22<sup>nd<\/sup> July shunt at <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/OL_jVpeDz6Q?si=pP9lzsDQ1DfCKqF3\">https:\/\/youtu.be\/OL_jVpeDz6Q?si=pP9lzsDQ1DfCKqF3<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div id=\"attachment_59774\" style=\"width: 560px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1.717-os.jpg\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-59774\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-59774\" src=\"http:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1.717-os-550x413.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"550\" height=\"413\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1.717-os-550x413.jpg 550w, https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1.717-os-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1.717-os.jpg 1265w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 550px) 100vw, 550px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-59774\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Balloon 717 seen within Tramtown exhibition, waiting for a chance to stretch its wheels once again.<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"attachment_59775\" style=\"width: 560px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/2736-os.jpg\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-59775\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-59775\" src=\"http:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/2736-os-550x413.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"550\" height=\"413\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/2736-os-550x413.jpg 550w, https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/2736-os-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/2736-os.jpg 1265w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 550px) 100vw, 550px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-59775\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Frigate, HMS Blackpoool, F736, is also in Tramtown. This was the last tram to still be based at Starr Gate following the December 2024 suspension of all heritage tours.<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"attachment_59776\" style=\"width: 560px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/3.66-os.jpg\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-59776\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-59776\" src=\"http:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/3.66-os-550x413.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"550\" height=\"413\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/3.66-os-550x413.jpg 550w, https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/3.66-os-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/3.66-os.jpg 1273w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 550px) 100vw, 550px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-59776\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">And Bolton 66 is also present in the line at Tramtown. (All Photographs by Oliver Shenton, 16th August 2025)<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With Blackpool Heritage Tram Tours currently looking at a phased reintroduction, with Illumination Tours due to start in October 2025 in time for Lightpool, a start has been made on the first part of the work needed. This has necessitated &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=59773\">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\/59773"}],"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=59773"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59773\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59777,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59773\/revisions\/59777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=59773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=59773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=59773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}