{"id":7428,"date":"2014-05-02T19:37:57","date_gmt":"2014-05-02T19:37:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=7428"},"modified":"2014-05-02T19:37:57","modified_gmt":"2014-05-02T19:37:57","slug":"another-makeover-planned-for-blackpool-290","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=7428","title":{"rendered":"Another makeover planned for Blackpool 290"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Fleetwood Heritage Leisure Trust have recently given their official website a welcome refresh, with updated profiles on all of the trams in their collection, including their most recent acquisition &#8211; <strong>Blackpool Centenary car 643<\/strong>. This includes the news that <strong>Brush Railcoach 290<\/strong> (ex-<strong>627<\/strong>) is set to be repainted yet again in the near future, with its graffiti art set to disappear under a fresh coat of green and cream paint.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><strong>290<\/strong> has been on static display near the Pleasure Beach turning circle since August 2012, initially painted in a white and gold livery to commemorate the Queen&#8217;s Diamond Jubilee. Last year it was (badly) repainted in gold with graffiti-style artwork applied on one side only as part of an urban art festival in Blackpool, but unfortunately this has not stood up well to the coastal climate and begun to weather badly just a few weeks after being completed. Concerns have also been expressed over the tram&#8217;s structural condition, which has visibly deteriorated since it has been put in such an exposed position.<\/p>\n<p>However, a return to a more dignified appearance has now been mooted for <strong>290<\/strong>, which is set to regain its traditional green and cream fleet colours. It had previously been suggested that the tram would be removed from its special display siding and replaced by <strong>Balloon car 726<\/strong>, which is set to be transformed into a new illuminated display tram; however the Trust now state that the work on <strong>726<\/strong> is not expected to be undertaken until 2015. Although not yet confirmed, it is believed that <strong>290<\/strong> may therefore be repainted yet again in the interim, giving the Trust a continued presence at Pleasure Beach as part of the annual autumn illuminations. Hopefully if this goes ahead then the car will undergo proper preparatory body work before being repainted, although it remains to be seen what will be done with the saloon windows which were painted over last year. A more tasteful repaint would certainly be fitting for <strong>290<\/strong> as it was of course the last tram to the former North Station terminus, and its renovation would be a very welcome nod to the past in the wake of the announcement that trams should once again run to North Station within the next four years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Fleetwood Heritage Leisure Trust have recently given their official website a welcome refresh, with updated profiles on all of the trams in their collection, including their most recent acquisition &#8211; Blackpool Centenary car 643. This includes the news that &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=7428\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"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\/7428"}],"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=7428"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7428\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7430,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7428\/revisions\/7430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}