{"id":8982,"date":"2014-09-05T19:55:01","date_gmt":"2014-09-05T18:55:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=8982"},"modified":"2014-09-05T19:55:01","modified_gmt":"2014-09-05T18:55:01","slug":"finishing-touches-for-balloon-701","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=8982","title":{"rendered":"Finishing touches for Balloon 701"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The second stage of <strong>Blackpool Balloon car 701<\/strong>&#8216;s repaint back into its fondly remembered red and white &#8216;Routemaster&#8217; style livery is now almost complete. Following its debut in an incomplete version of the paint scheme it previously carried in the early 1990s over the August Bank Holiday weekend, <strong>701 <\/strong>was hastily returned to the Rigby Road Paint Shop for some further enhancements to an already stunning repaint.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>The full ornate black and white lining out &#8211; a feature of this livery first time around &#8211; has now been faithfully recreated and the end result looks absolutely stunning. One small compromise to the authenticity of the finished tram has been the addition of Fylde Tramway Society logos on the staircase panels, recognising the organisation&#8217;s generosity in funding the repaint. Thankfully these logos look more tasteful than some FTS adverts previously applied to trams that have benefitted from the Society&#8217;s financial support, and as <strong>701 <\/strong>carried between-deck adverts when it was last painted red and white these logos do not detract too much from its appearance.<\/p>\n<p>Once the tram has been treated with varnish to protect its immaculate paintwork, it will be available for use and will hopefully be used on illumination tours in the near future. The Blackpool Heritage Trust will confirm when the tram is expected to make its debut, so that enthusiasts can enjoy this tram in completed Routemaster livery for the first time since 1993. Indeed, the Trust have frequently provided advance notice of which trams will be used on illumination tours through the heritage tours&#8217; Facebook page, and it is hoped that this highly commendable move will contribute to a highly successful season for the tours.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_8983\" style=\"width: 970px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?attachment_id=8983\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-8983\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-8983\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-8983\" title=\"701 Paint Shop 2\" src=\"http:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/701-Paint-Shop-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"960\" height=\"720\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/701-Paint-Shop-2.jpg 960w, https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/701-Paint-Shop-2-550x412.jpg 550w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-8983\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A glimpse of the completed Routemaster livery on Balloon 701, seen in Blackpool Transport&#39;s Paint Shop with the full lining out and FTS logos in evidence. (Photo courtesy of Blackpool Heritage Tram Tours Facebook page)<\/p><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The second stage of Blackpool Balloon car 701&#8216;s repaint back into its fondly remembered red and white &#8216;Routemaster&#8217; style livery is now almost complete. Following its debut in an incomplete version of the paint scheme it previously carried in the &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=8982\">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":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8982"}],"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=8982"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8982\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8985,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8982\/revisions\/8985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}