It may be remembered that last year, a small number of Douglas horse trams were sold off at auction. Initially it was announced that, once sold, the trams would all have to be removed from Strathallan depot within a fairly short timescale, but one of them managed to remain on site into 2017. However, on 1st February Douglas 28 finally left the tramway behind en route to a new home at an unconfirmed location.
28 was perhaps the most surprising of the six cars which were placed up for auction as, despite not operating for many years, enclosed saloons such as this one are in short supply and any upturn in the tramway’s fortunes in the future could well result in its sale being deeply regretted. Nonetheless, 28 has been sold and on 1st February it was placed on a lorry and departed Douglas. No firm information is available on its new home, although it has been strongly rumoured that this car has left the Isle of Man.
All of the six sold trams have now left meaning that the depot is home to the retained horse tram fleet and no more. However this may not be the case for much longer, with a new industrial unit planned to house all of the remaining rolling stock as well as the horses, due to the present depot being declared unsafe.
A quarter of the fleet is hardly a small amount.
Was it not announced last year that it was going to a railway somewhere?