In this latest edition of “Picture in Time” we are staying on the Isle of Man as we view another of the trams which still make up the fleet of the Manx Electric Railway.
1894 saw what we now know as the Manx Electric Railway continue its expansion with an extension built as far as Laxey and that required additional vehicles to be built to cater for the extra mileage on the route. This came in the form of six Tunnel Cars which were built by G.F.Milnes and arrived from spring 1894. Two of the six were lost in a fire at Laxey Car Sheds in 1930 but the other four (5, 6, 7 and 9) remain on the line to this day and have been regular performers in service throughout their operating careers.
It’s the last of the Tunnel Cars which is featured in the below image – no. 9. Taken in September 1990 the tram was in the basic teak and cream livery and with this being before the 1993 Year of the Railways it was also pre the motor receiving illuminations. With a couple of birds in front of 9 its waiting in the siding at Laxey, a siding which is now not part of the network.
Photograph by Glyn Thomas, September 1990