{"id":15171,"date":"2016-08-12T22:23:04","date_gmt":"2016-08-12T21:23:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=15171"},"modified":"2016-08-12T22:23:04","modified_gmt":"2016-08-12T21:23:04","slug":"douglas-bay-horse-tramway-celebrates-140-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=15171","title":{"rendered":"Douglas Bay Horse Tramway celebrates 140 years"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was an anniversary which it was feared may be celebrated without any trams running but on Sunday 7th August the Douglas Bay Horse Tramway was the centre of attention on the Isle of Man as 140 years of operation were celebrated. The highlights of the day included a nine tram cavalcade, the use of two horses hauling double decker no. 18<\/strong> and trams on display outside the depot at Strathallan.<\/p>\n

The 140th anniversary celebrations actually started the day before, Saturday 6th August, with the first behind the scenes tour of the stables (with members of the Friends of the Douglas Bay Horse Tramway doing the honours) \u2013 which now take place every Saturday and Sunday until October \u2013 taking place with a special tram service then running through until 2100. This saw a 20 minute service operating using two trams \u2013 Bulkheads 43<\/strong> and 44<\/strong> (the Royal Tram) \u2013 which in the main was fairly lightly loaded with the weather starting to deteriorate as Manannan\u2019s cloak enveloped the island.<\/p>\n

But the mane event (once again no apologies for the pun!) was on the actual anniversary of the opening of the tramway \u2013 Sunday 7th August. The day started warm and dry with the first advertised special event being the operation of double decker no. 18<\/strong> with two horses. This was the first time for a huge seven days that a double decker had run with two horses (as part of the Manx Heritage Transport Festival \u2013 before then it was over a hundred years that this happened). The two horses chosen were the aptly named Douglas and William and they left Derby Castle shortly after 0900 with a full load of passengers (this wasn\u2019t the first service of the day though as Royal Tram 44<\/strong> had left with the 0900 departure). Having completed one round trip the two horses were walked round the tram and undertook another round trip before no. 18<\/strong> was put on display outside the depot. In addition to no. 18 Toastrack no. 12<\/strong> and Winter Saloon no. 1<\/strong> were also displayed for photos outside the depot whilst in the stub tracks outside the Terminus Tavern Toastracks no. 21<\/strong> and no. 38<\/strong> were also out of the depot. The depot doors had also been flung open allowing views of some of the withdrawn trams at the back of the shed along with some of the operational trams not required for service.<\/p>\n

Despite it being anniversary day for the rest of the morning and early afternoon it was a standard day with Bulkhead trams 36<\/strong>, 43<\/strong> and 44<\/strong> operating timetable P which sees trams running up to every 15 minutes. There was one unfortunate incident during the morning when Torren was hauling no. 36<\/strong> from the Sea Terminal to Derby Castle. When the horse reached Castle Mona he slipped\/tripped causing him to fall over ending up resting alongside the front of the tram. The quick actions of the crew operating the tram, passengers who has been travelling on the tram, passersby (including a bus driver who stopped alongside) moved the tram body away from Torren and he was able to get up. He was then walked back to the stables where a vet was called to give him the once over \u2013 it was later confirmed by Isle of Man Railways that he had only suffered minor cuts and bruises. The tram was towed back to Derby Castle by a pick-up to resume services.<\/p>\n

The highlight of the day was shortly after 1600 when a grand cavalcade of trams was planned starting from Derby Castle to the Sea Terminal and return. It had been hoped that this would feature ten trams but in the end it was only possible for nine to be included. Of the trams included in this Cavalcade the biggest surprise was the inclusion of Toastrack no. 38<\/strong> \u2013 a tram not considered to be part of the operational fleet and also not previously expected to be one of the 11 trams due to transferred to Isle of Man Railways for the future operation of the line.<\/p>\n

The full Cavalcade was as follows:<\/p>\n

William and 18<\/p>\n

Una and 1<\/p>\n

Steve and 12<\/p>\n

Douglas and 44<\/p>\n

Mark and 36<\/p>\n

Philip and 38<\/p>\n

Rocky and 45<\/p>\n

Robert and 42<\/p>\n

Amby and 43<\/p>\n

As the Cavalcade arrived back at Derby Castle the non first choice trams (18<\/strong>, 1<\/strong>, 12<\/strong> and 38<\/strong>) were taken straight into the depot and a normal service resumed with the final departure from Derby Castle being at 1800.<\/p>\n

Douglas Bay Horse Tramway \u2013 140 years not out! Here\u2019s to the next 140 years!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

William and Douglas head back towards Derby Castle with no. 18 during one of its two passenger runs at the start of 7th August.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Having completed its two passenger runs 18 was displayed alongside 1 outside the depot.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Toastrack 12 with Steve is seen outside the Villa Marine during the outbound Cavalcade. 12 is followed by 44, 36 and 38.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"<\/a>

The unexpected sight of Toastrack 38 on the mainline again with Philip doing the honours. In this view the pair are arriving back at Derby Castle ready to go back into the depot and out of the limelight once again. (All Photographs by Gareth Prior)<\/p><\/div>\n

* Full photographic coverage of the 140th anniversary events will follow on British Trams Online<\/em> later this month.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was an anniversary which it was feared may be celebrated without any trams running but on Sunday 7th August the Douglas Bay Horse Tramway was the centre of attention on the Isle of Man as 140 years of operation … 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":[27],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15171"}],"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=15171"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15171\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15177,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15171\/revisions\/15177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}