{"id":7271,"date":"2014-04-20T19:57:52","date_gmt":"2014-04-20T19:57:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=7271"},"modified":"2014-04-20T19:57:52","modified_gmt":"2014-04-20T19:57:52","slug":"warning-balloon-711-on-test-at-crich","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=7271","title":{"rendered":"Warning! Balloon 711 on test at Crich!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Whilst many tram enthusiasts were celebrating the 80th anniversary of the famous Balloon trams in Blackpool over the Easter weekend, one of the class was making history elsewhere. Modified car 711<\/strong>, which is on loan to the National Tramway Museum for the 2014 season, has been making its first moves around the museum under its own power since being delivered on Wednesday 9th April.<\/p>\n

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Almost as soon as the Balloon car was unloaded it was shunted into the museum workshop where commissioning work commenced, including the re-fitting of its pantograph and lifeguards,\u00a0which had been removed for the road journey from Blackpool. Just over a week later, on Good Friday 18th April, 711<\/strong> made its tentative moves out of the workshop under its own power after being treated to a thorough clean\u00a0– the first such moves by a Balloon car at Crich since the visit of sister car 710<\/strong> in the mid 1980s. The following day, Saturday 19th April, was even more significant, as 711<\/strong> was taken for a test run to Glory Mine and back for the first time before the morning tram service began. This was primarily to ensure that the tram with its widened centre platforms would fit on the Crich tramway; but as some trials had already been undertaken with another tram simulating the enhancements to 711<\/strong>‘s width, this unsurprisingly passed without incident, thus completing another successful chapter in the tram’s long life. An impromptu photo opportunity with fellow Blackpool cars, Brush 630<\/strong> and Jubilee 762<\/strong>, was also taken on the depot fan, showcasing some of the more modern-looking trams now resident at Crich.<\/p>\n

No announcement has yet been made as to when 711<\/strong> will enter service at the museum, although it is confidently predicted that it will operate at the ‘Beside the Seaside’ event which is being held over the late May school holiday period. The tram should stay at Crich until the end of the 2014 operating season, allowing the museum to show the closest to a second generation tram that is currently able to operate on their demonstration line as part of the celebrations to mark the 50th anniversary of electric tramcar operation at Crich.<\/p>\n

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Balloon car 711 makes its first appearance on the mainline at Crich, shown here at the Glory Mine terminus early on the morning of April 19th.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Another view of 711 at Glory Mine; this time the car is shown on the reversing stub track. Note the improved surface in front of the tram where visitors can now alight for a break between tram rides.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Modern developments in Blackpool illustrated in the depot yard at Crich with 711 joined by Jubilee car 762 and refurbished Brush Railcoach 630. (Photos x 3 by Dan Heeley)<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Whilst many tram enthusiasts were celebrating the 80th anniversary of the famous Balloon trams in Blackpool over the Easter weekend, one of the class was making history elsewhere. Modified car 711, which is on loan to the National Tramway Museum … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7271"}],"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=7271"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7271\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7277,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7271\/revisions\/7277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}