Picture in Time: Aachen 1010

Its time to go inside the sheds at Derby Castle on the Isle of Man again for this edition of “Picture in Time”.

In the nearly 130 years of the Manx Electric Railway the number of interlopers to the system have been few and far between but in the 1970s there was one fully intact tramcar from Aachen in Germany which was to be found in the sheds at Derby Castle – but it was never on the island for operation but as a source of parts for the upgrading of the Snaefell Mountain Railway motors. A number of trams from Aachen were used for this purpose but 1010 was the only one to be sent to the Isle of Man intact, the others went to London where they were stripped for parts and these were subsequently sent on.

1010 here is displaying the quite appropriate destination Westfriedhof or West Cemetery! Aachen’s tramway was a metre gauge system and was one of the largest networks in Germany with several long interurban routes, including some across the border into Belgium and the Netherlands. The tramway closed in its entirety in 1974 and to this date have not returned despite various proposals. 1010 itself was from a series of trams (1001–1011) which were built in 1956 by Waggonfabrik Talbot (taken over by Bombardier in 1995). They would end up being the last new trams built for Aachen with all further acquisitions being second hand. Of the fleet 1006 survives and is currently on loan at the Wallonia Transport Museum, Liege, Belgium.

Photograph by Donald Brooks, 4th June 1977