Its edition four of our A-Z of Trams in the British Isles and the letter we take a look at is D.
This is another letter where it hasn’t been too difficult to decide on what to cover as the Douglas Bay Horse Tramway comes straight to mind. Opening in 1876, the Douglas Bay Horse Tramway currently operates between Derby Castle (adjacent to the Manx Electric Railway terminus) and a stop more or less opposite the Villa Marina – its hoped this will only be a temporary terminus with plans for the line to be constructed back to the Sea Terminal up in the air having previously been approved on several occasions at Tynwald. In the meantime its been a shortened route for the Trammers to operate along, although there has been a lot of investment in the trams themselves since Isle of Man Transport took over responsibility for the operation of the historic line.
On 7th August 2016 as part of the celebrations of the 140th anniversary of the Douglas Bay Horse Tramway there was a cavalcade of horse trams which ran all the way from Derby Castle to the Sea Terminal and back. It’s the and back that we see here just on the approach to the terminus with the oldest still operational tram originally built for the line – 12 – leading the way with Steve providing horse power. Behind are 44, 36 and 38. (Photograph by Gareth Prior, 7th August 2016)