The annual Manx Transport Festival is now well underway with many transport enthusiasts flocking to the Isle of Man in order to sample the very best that the railways and tramways of this island paradise have to offer. Unfortunately, plans to operate an intensive twelve-tram service on the Manx Electric Railway over the weekend of 28th & 29th July have been thwarted as a number of trams are currently out of service, although an interesting output is still expected.
The MER Facebook website has confirmed that cars 7, 19 and 22 are presently unavailable for service and unlikely to be fit in time for the weekend events. Whilst there is a small chance that cars 19 and 22 may be repaired in time, tunnel car 7 has definitely been ruled out of the events due to electrical faults. As for the others; 19 requires further testing following traction motor repairs before it is approved for passenger service, whilst 22 is suffering from resistor problems. The absence of up to three trams which were due to be in service mean that there will not be enough vehicles to operate the proposed timetable, but a more frequent than usual service will still be offered and hopefully all available cars will appear in service over the weekend of 28th/29th July.
Whilst this will obviously be a disapointment to many visitors to the island, Saturday and Sunday should still witness a strong turnout on the Manx Electric Railway with some of the more elusive trams in the fleet, such as 1893-built car 1 due to run in service. In addition, it is hoped to have another tram on static display at Derby Castle at some point, and car 2 is understood to be pencilled in for this role, subject to final confirmation. Hopefully those who do attend will be pleased with the amount of effort which is obviously being poured into the transport festival, and the enhanced service on the MER will be well supported enough to justify repeat events in future years.
I arrived home today from the Manx Transport Festival. As far as the tramway goes I did not notice any disruption to the service and on the Saturday and Sunday the enhanced timetable ran well and an extra tram and trailer ran, crewed by the boss and chief engineer. Car No. 7 was displayed outside the Douglas depot on the Sunday and Car No. 1 towing short trailer 59 and postal van No.4 was seen at Douglas. I photographed No.2 at the depot but was informed it ran in service on the Saturday.
No. 7 is waiting for a new traction motor so cannot run in service.
Saturday
1 5 6 9 19 20 21 32 33 in service
16 was inside the shed so was 2 and 7 outside
Snaefell 2/3/5/6 (4 was out on Friday but looked very tatty!)
Horse trams 36 44 45 were out over Fri/Sat and 21 ran with a new horse on trial
Impressive MER turnout, but a sad reflection of the times that so few horse trams are needed these days. Still, much better than no trams at all!