Pantograph 167 to visit Blackpool for Summer Season

Pantograph car 167 last visited Blackpool during 2010, a sight which will be able to be repeated again during 2014

Blackpool Transport and the National Tramway Museum have agreed on a tramcar exchange for 2014. Pantograph car 167, which is currently on loan to The Living Museum of the North at Beamish, is to be transported to Blackpool in April in time to enter service over the bank holiday weekend of 25th May. In return modernised purple Balloon 711 will be moved to Crich and operate there during 2014 in order to take the place of 167. Only one other Blackpool Balloon has ever operated in service at Crich, and that was 710 which was part of an exchange during the 1980s.

Balloon 711 will take the place of Pantograph car 167 at Crich, see here at Little Bispham in November 2012

The last Blackpool Balloon to operate in service at Crich was 710 in the 1980s, seen here at Town End in 1984