{"id":8841,"date":"2014-08-25T20:10:25","date_gmt":"2014-08-25T19:10:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=8841"},"modified":"2014-08-25T20:10:26","modified_gmt":"2014-08-25T19:10:26","slug":"in-pictures-return-of-the-routemaster-balloon-car","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=8841","title":{"rendered":"In Pictures: Return of the Routemaster Balloon car"},"content":{"rendered":"

The August Bank Holiday weekend saw the welcome return to service in Blackpool of Balloon 701<\/strong>, fresh from the Paint Shop following a complete repaint. Gone was the faded and unflattering plain yellow coat of paint it carried when it last ran in May 2013, and in its place, it has regained the stunning red and white livery last seen on this tram between 1991 and 1993 following a major overhaul.<\/p>\n

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701<\/strong>‘s livery was based on the ex-London Routemaster buses which ran on the promenade service for some years at the time when its last major overhaul was completed, and was applied to ensure that the tram stood out amongst its green and cream sisters, to emphasise the fact that it was at the time the most extensively rebuilt Balloon car yet. Sadly the attractive livery soon faded badly and disapeared after less than three years, but was always fondly remembered and therefore the inclusion of 701 <\/strong>in the retained heritage fleet provided the perfect opportunity for it to regain its most popular livery.<\/p>\n

On Sunday 24th August, 701 <\/strong>duly appeared on the promenade looking absolutely magnificent once again following this repaint. Due to the extent of preparation of the body panels which was needed before they could be painted, the project had run slightly behind schedule and it was therefore not possible to finish the job in time for the weekend; however it was decided to run the incomplete tram anyway, and nobody seemed to mind at all. 701 <\/strong>is expected to return to the works shortly where its intricate black and white lining out will be completed, and the car should also receive some varnishing to protect its immaculate paintwork.<\/p>\n

Full credit must go to the painters who worked so hard to get 701 <\/strong>ready for its advertised debut outing, and also to the Fylde Tramway Society who financed this latest impressive repaint, making the tram another more than worthy member of Blackpool’s heritage fleet.<\/p>\n

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The immaculate Balloon 701 is seen on arrival at North Pier fresh from depot on 24th August - the first day out for its shiny new paintwork.<\/p><\/div>\n

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701 arrives at Fleetwood with the morning heritage tour on August 24th.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Contrasting Balloon car liveries with 701 and 706 posed side by side on the Fleetwood Ferry passing loop.<\/p><\/div>\n

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One of the Bank Holiday weekend's many highlights was the chance to see 701 next to red Boat car 227 which appeared in service on the Sunday afternoon due to fine weather. The duo are seen here at Pleasure Beach. (All photos by Bradley Jones)<\/p><\/div>\n

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The August Bank Holiday weekend saw the welcome return to service in Blackpool of Balloon 701, fresh from the Paint Shop following a complete repaint. Gone was the faded and unflattering plain yellow coat of paint it carried when it … 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":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8841"}],"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=8841"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8841\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8848,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8841\/revisions\/8848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}