The heritage service was well patronised over the weekend thanks to a generous deal allowing FTS members to purchase tickets for the tours in advance at a discounted price, and hopefully some of the enthusiasts who were tempted to try out the new tours will have enjoyed themselves enough to make these trips part of any future visits to Blackpool. Saturday 5th May saw Open Boat 600<\/strong> in use for normal passengers for the first time in 2012; prior to this the only Blackpool Boat car to have run in service this year was car 233\/605<\/strong> at Beamish Museum. The following day saw the illuminated Western Train 733+734<\/strong> also debut on the heritage tours, and it also became the first tram with a three person crew to run on the tours, as double-deckers 706<\/strong> and 717<\/strong> have run with just one conductor on board due to the ‘limited stop’ nature of this service. Sadly the Train was only out for about an hour before it failed and had to be towed to the depot by a Unimog, with Bolton 66<\/strong> being sent out in its place, until it too was replaced by Boat 600<\/strong>: a popular choice due to the bright sunny weather. Hopefully future outings for 733+734<\/strong> will be more succesful as they always cause heads to turn and could well attract extra customers to board, compared to some of the other available trams.<\/p>\n Flexity 008 traverses Pleasure Beach outer loop as Fleetwood Box 40 looks on, providing a bizarre contrast of trams built some 97 years apart. (Photo by Tony Waddington)<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The May Day Bank Holiday weekend is traditionally the time when the Fylde Tramway Society host their annual Convention weekend, with a series of entertaining events for Society members as well as their Annual General Meeting. Although due to a … Continue reading ![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/008-+-40-loop-1024x680.jpg\" "\\"008")
<\/a>