{"id":10872,"date":"2015-04-03T11:34:56","date_gmt":"2015-04-03T11:34:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=10872"},"modified":"2015-04-03T11:34:56","modified_gmt":"2015-04-03T11:34:56","slug":"a-ratchet-car-to-return-on-the-manx-electric-railway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=10872","title":{"rendered":"A Ratchet Car to return on the Manx Electric Railway"},"content":{"rendered":"

It has been announced that a Ratchet Car is to be restored back to working order on the Manx Electric Railway with no. 14<\/strong> having recently been moved back to the Derby Castle Sheds where the work will be undertaken. No Ratchet Car has been in operation on the MER since the early part of the 21st century so this restoration will fill in a gap in the operational fleet when the work has been completed.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The Ratchet Cars are so-called because they were not fitted with air brakes which meant that the drivers had to rely o the ratchet hand braking system but this contributed to their downfall. There are only eight Ratchets of which no. 14<\/strong> was the first delivered to the Isle of Man in 1898 (the others are 15<\/strong>, 17<\/strong>, 18<\/strong> and 28<\/strong>–31<\/strong>). This car last carried passengers in 1978 when it was withdrawn from passenger service but it did remain operational until 1982 being used by the Overhead Line Department.<\/p>\n

Initially stored at Derby Castle Sheds some electrical work was undertaken in the mid-1980s with a view to returning it to service but this did not progress far and the tram remained stored in Douglas until 1996 when it was moved for further storage at Laxey. A further move followed in 2002 when it left MER metals for storage at Homefield Bus Garage but in 2009 it was moved again, this time to Ramsey Car Sheds. But then at the end of last year with Ramsey Car Sheds due for demolition it was moved back to Laxey.<\/p>\n

There were rumours last year that a Ratchet Car would be returned to use and after discussions it was decided that no. 14<\/strong> was in the best condition for a return to service \u2013 despite the shunting accident damage on one end panel suffered in 1997. So in March this year the car received a truck and was moved back to Derby Castle Sheds for the restoration to take place.<\/p>\n

It is planned that 14<\/strong> will be restored to 1920s condition including the correct trucks, traction motors, controllers and livery for this period.<\/p>\n

The enthusiast website Manx Electric Railway.co.uk are assisting in the restoration \u2013 full details can be found at http:\/\/manxelectricrailway.co.uk\/latest-news\/ratchet-restoration\/<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It has been announced that a Ratchet Car is to be restored back to working order on the Manx Electric Railway with no. 14 having recently been moved back to the Derby Castle Sheds where the work will be undertaken. … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[26],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10872"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10872"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10872\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10873,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10872\/revisions\/10873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}