The Douglas Bay Horse Tramway

I read somewhere that the horses know the routine so well that if you reduce the number of trips by one, they try to carry on, past the depot!

 

Victorians say "hold my tea"
Source: National Tramway Museum https://share.google/ZNdui3Ke1HOZofWFR

 

There is a story that when the Queen Mother visited many years ago they wanted to give her a non-stop ride on the tramway, but the horse stopped at all the usual stops!

 

Years ago, the tracks at the ferry terminal extended further than they did in recent years, from Loch Promenade in to what is now a car park. This extension was, IIRC, only used to terminate the working and run-round the horse, i.e. always empty stock. A friend and I were on a "special" that was scheduled to cover this piece of rare track but we got to Loch Promenade and the horse stopped, and would go no further despite best efforts. He knew the tram had to be empty to go down there, and it was not. We eventually pushed it around by manpower, while the horse watched with some amusement.

 

IIRC the track was extended from the Jubilee Clock through to the Sea Terminal in the 1960s, and passenger services were run right through for a few years, but were eventually cut back to the Jubilee Clock again. I have heard that this was because local taxi drivers claimed they were losing too much business from passengers at the Sea Terminal? But perhaps that's just an urban legend. No doubt one of our Manx friends will be able to fill in the full details.

Anyway, the extended track at the Sea Terminal definitely remained intact and usable into the late '90s. Quite by chance I was watching an old video of the Steam 125 celebrations last night, and it showed the battery-powered ex-cable car (now at Jurby) running through to the Sea Terminal. This was done, apparently, to keep the self-propelled vehicle well out of sight of the following horse-tram service--it 'spooked' the horses, you see!