It seems hard to believe that we have already reached the end of another year of operation (some of us haven’t even had our main holiday of the year yet!) on the Douglas Horse Tramway with the last services due to run for 2015 over the weekend of Saturday 12th and Sunday 13th September. To mark the end of the 139th season of operation Douglas Borough Council have announced a number of special events with children going free and lots of trams out and about.
Normally when you go to the Douglas Horse Tramway there will be two trams in service on any one day (plus the occasional use of double decker 18 during the middle of the day) but over this last weekend it is planned that a variety of trams will be in service although no further details have been announced as to which trams might be in action. There will also be trams on display at Strathallan and you can visit the stables for a meet and greet with the hardworking Clydesdale horses. And then as the season draws to a close there will be a mini cavalcade at 1720 on Sunday 13th September.
Normal fares for adults will apply during the weekend but any child accompanied by an adult will be able to travel for free.
Intriguingly Douglas Borough Council have hinted at 2016 and said that there are planned to be some special celebrations to mark the 140th anniversary of the tramway. Obviously at this stage nothing official has been announced about just what sort of service may be operated on the tramway but hopefully this is the best indication yet that at least some trams will run during the year.
Thank you for taking the trouble to provide this report. The up-to-the-minute information on this website is so useful. We had actually already booked to go for this last weekend, on the offchance, and it’s good to know there will be some things to look forward to! No one I have talked to from the Isle of Man or any comment I have seen seems to be sure what will be happening next year or in the longer term as yet.
The most recent plans can be seen at https://www.gov.im/planningapplication/services/planning/planningapplicationdetails.iom?ApplicationReferenceNumber=15%2F00594%2FB – there’s still some way to go, however!
Hello
I do hope that there will still be horse drawn trams in 2016 as I am making a special holiday arrangement to celebrate my 8oth birthday and hope to ride on the tram.
My last visit to the Island was when I was a child and well remember the rolls of barbed wire along the beach. I could not understand why I could not go on to the sands. It was VJ day while I was there and I remember there were great celebrations in the streets. I have very happy memories of visiting the Villa Marina and seeing Joe Loss. Happy days.