Behind the scenes tours at the Douglas Bay Horse Tramway stables will again be taking place in 2017 with the first tours due on the first day of the season – Saturday 8th April (only just over a week away!). The “Meet the Trammers” stable tours will be run by the Friends of Douglas Bay Horse Tramway in cooperation with Isle of Man Transport with two tours due to take place on each scheduled day at 1000 and 1100.
The tours will be building on the popular tours which were run during 2016 and offer visitors the chance to see behind the scenes of the world’s last remaining 19th century original horse drawn passenger tramway and to learn more about the daily lives of the tramway horses.
Admission for each tour is free and advanced booking is highly recommended as spaces are limited. Suitable footwear is essential as tours take place in a working stable environment. Places can be booked by contacting the MER Ticket Office on 01624 614 687 (open when the MER is running).
It is planned that the tours will take place on the following dates (1000 and 1100 on all days):
Saturday 8th April
Saturday 22nd April
Saturday 6th May
Saturday 20th May
Saturday 3rd June
Saturday 10th June
Saturday 8th July
Saturday 22nd July
Saturday 5th August
Saturday 19th August
Saturday 2nd September
Saturday 16th September
Saturday 7th October
Saturday 21st October
Saturday 4th November
Sunday 5th November
The Douglas Bay Horse Tramway operating season begins on Saturday 8th April with services running until Sunday 5th November (trams will not run every day during the season).
I have had to place my comments re this website’s attitude regarding the situation on the Isle of Man here in view of Gareth switching off comments on a prior thread after inflaming the situation he himself with his sarcasm towards the MER Society.
One would hope for a degree of balance in a website that purports to be a news service. Instead it has firmly nailed its colours to the mast of simply rolling over and accepting every erosion of the historic island railways.
Do you really think that without the effective protests by the MERS over nearly 50 years against sadly continual threats against survival of lines and vital historic buildings and rolling stock that we would still have delights such as the Northern Line of the MER?
I am profoundly disappointed at this ill-informed stance taken by this website and sadly will no longer will be either reading it or its Facebook postings since I clearly cannot trust its independence or judgement.
There is much to protect. Perhaps you would be happy for the Isle of Man Railways to go the way of the Blackpool Tramway?
If you simply meekly accept the threats you will be contributing to the destruction of what you claim to support.
I considered whether to allow this rant or not but in the end decided to as I don’t want to be accused of not letting free speech go on this website. I will reply to some of your comments but considering you aren’t ever going to read the website or our Facebook page again I’m probably wasting my time, but here goes:
* All comments are automatically switched off after 28 days (this can be changed for individual posts and on potentially sensitive topics we have now started to keep comments off from the start)
* There is no doubt that the MERS have done some good work over the years. However in recent times, not just my opinion I know there are those out there who agree with me as well, they seem to be anti anything that the government/Douglas Council/Isle of Man Transport propose. I don’t agree with everything that goes on on the Isle of Man but there has been an awful lot of positive changes and I make no apology for looking at the positive side of things rather than the continual negativity from the MERS. There are other organisations on the Isle of Man who work alongside Isle of Man Transport which seems to me to be a far better way of securing the future of these historic lines.
* You state that Isle of Man Railways could go the way of Blackpool? You mean an efficient transport system with the added bonus of a regular heritage tram operation? Although I don’t think the Isle of Man needs a modern light rail system you can’t honestly think that it is a bad thing for Blackpool? Blackpool is carrying more passengers than for many years and has an excellent heritage service to boot – what’s not to like? It seems to be the trouble that many enthusiasts still want everything to remain as it was 50 years ago, well I’m sorry but things have to move on and without investment – and yes modernisation – we probably wouldn’t have any heritage trams running anywhere – either in Blackpool or the Isle of Man.
At the end of the day we aren’t forcing anyone to read this website and if you don’t like what we put you don’t have to read it. This is done fully in our spare time and no we don’t always get it right but attempt to provide a news service from across the British Isles as and when we can. The comments section is there for exactly this reason so people can correct as required and also leave their own opinions on subjects – and many do this as has been seen recently with various Blackpool and Crich stories. When you say ill informed I think what you mean is we have formed our own opinions which aren’t the same as yours? We have looked at the facts and made our own conclusions, I’m sorry if this is not the same as your views but everyone is entitled to their own opinion.
Thanks for reading the website over the years Rob.
If anyone ever has any cause to disagree with anything on this website there are plenty of ways you can comment on it, either by leaving a comment or if you don’t want to make it public you can always email me at gareth@brtiishtramsonline.co.uk.
Gareth
“Rob McCaffery” – Not heard that name for a while… Not since it was exposed as a pseudonym being used by a well known (and widely untrusted) so-called enthusiast for his rants and sniping at group owners/moderators…
Is that you again Mr S???
Perhaps Mr Prior’s comments would carry a little more credibility if he didn’t dismiss an alternative point of view as being a rant.
I’m a firm believer in giving credit where it is due, perhaps Mr Prior would care to name the other organisations on the Isle of Man who work alongside Isle of Man Transport.