The Blackpool Belle (No.2)

Must be the day for it - this is my second follow-up post of the day! I have previously mentioned the Blackpool Belle illuminated tram that I remember well trundling up and down the Promenade during the famous Illuminations, but which got sent away to America during the later 1970s.

I had a wander around the Hoyles antiques market in the Olympia building in the Winter Gardens complex this morning and came across this postcard of the tram, taken by the John Hinde postcard firm. It was probably taken in or close by the tram sheds as:

1. there looks to be a line at angles to the tram so it could have been near a set of points
2. it had to be taken in daylight from the detail and colour of the tram's woodwork and the sea-effect on the skirting

John Hinde were extremely good at paint jobs though and the background has been painted out and the foreground darkened and perhaps coloured to look like night with the tram lights reflected in a puddle.

Gynn Square Trams

This postcard shows trams turning from the Promenade into Dickson Road at Gynn Square Blackpool. The route, to Blackpool North Station closed on 27 October 1963 and there is no trace of rails left anywhere along the route today.

At the same time the tram sheds at Bispham were closed along with the route to it down Red Bank Road. For another twenty years or so the rails to the sheds were visible in the car park of Alpic, a cash and carry that opened in the old sheds. Today the sheds have gone and the car park now serves a building on Red Bank Road itself - the Sainsburys store.

This being a John Hinde postcard (taken by John Hinde himself) it has several examples of the painted red coats, I mentioned in an earlier post! At time of writing the Gynn gardens are still there and have a colony of rabbits which can be seen quite often munching the grass and flowers!