European Railroad Discussion > Isle of Man Horse Trams

The Isle of Man has a complex social history, some of it mythological.  The most often quoted myth is that King Orry and Queen Mona did not have an heir to the throne (sometime around 1000 AD). and instead decided to leave the Governance of the Island to the people, thereby creating the Tynwald, a type of Parliament.

The Isle of Man has always been somewhat separate from the rest of the British Isle since then. In 1866, it became a self governing British dependency .

It has its own Parliament, Bank, and Court system.  It is a tax haven for European citizens and institutions. 

Long a popular tourist destination, situated between England and Ireland, the Isle of Man struggles financially, and being self governed, does not receive funding from Britain.

All forms of transport on the Isle of Man, ferries, airlines , railways and tramways have faced difficult financial times.

The city of Douglas has to fund all types of services for its citizens and must prioritize where the money is spent.

Vintage transport is a major tourist draw, and I am sure there are many that would want the horse trams retained.

No doubt the future of the trams will be hotly debated.

The Manx people are strongly in dependant, and I hope whatever decision they reach will be the best for the people living there.

 

I read (as in a previous thread) that they had already decided to end service. Last tram ran last year unless something has changed in the past few days. We were fortunate to have a horse tram charter with horse David and the double decker tram as seen in your third photo. We also had a morning out with the two enclosed trams, appropriately, in typical Manx pouring rain. I'd post but never got around to scanning these photos as they pre-date digital.

Thank you for the excellent pictures of these rare vehicles and backgrounder eminence_grise!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/28/16 00:21 by McKey.

Last summer at Douglas I was amazed at the low starting traction of a horse.  With no "sanding  equipment" on the horse, any closeby workers were called upon to push the wagon since the horse's  shoes slid too much.  Of course, once in motion the horse had no problems.

Some time ago, there was an outcry that the double deck tram was too much for a single draft horse, and the Douglas Corporation took it out of service for some years.

The Douglas tram horses are beloved by the Manx citizens, indeed their stable is a tourist attraction in itself. 

The ostlers (original spelling of hostler) and tram drivers, plus many others in the horse owning community proved that the big tram fully loaded with passengers was well within the capability of a single horse. The 2003 season marked the return of the double deck tram to service (year picture was taken). The Douglas newspaper was making lots of copy over the fact that the tram workers and others had overturned a bureaucrat's decision. I suspect the closure of the horse tram operation is generating lots of dialogue.

The double track tram is single ended, meaning that it is turned on a street turntable at each end of the run.

What bred of horses? Belgian, Clydesdale, Percheron, Shire, or Suffolk?