In today’s edition of “Picture in Time” we are again on the Isle of Man and although we are on Manx Electric Railway property its not a MER vehicle that we’re looking at.
Before the Snaefell Car Sheds in Laxey had its own workshop facilities the six motors which operated the service up to the Summit had to be transferred to the Manx Electric Railway’s Derby Castle Sheds for any major maintenance. Some of the most significant maintenance that they received was in the late 1970s when their motors were updated using equipment taken out of trams from Aachen in Germany. The first of the vehicles to receive this new equipment was the lowest numbered – no. 1.
In this photo we are in Derby Castle Sheds where 1 is under attention. The work would be finished not long after this image was captured with tests then being undertaken back on the SMR a few months later. Alongside we see Aachen 1010 – but more on that tram next week!
Photograph by Donald Brooks, 4th June 1977