Loaghtan Books

     We saw the last of our delivery vehicles yesterday.  The old trams have the winter off and start work again in March.  From now until then local deliveries will have to be made by car as we have no handy bus service.  We do try and do our bit to stop global warming.      Unexpectedly the last two trams of the season did a parallel run from Ramsey to Laxey - that's the northern half of the line.  For those of you who don't know what a parallel run is, it means two trams running side by side going in the same direction.  One of them obviously has to use the line which trams travelling in the opposite direction would normally use.  Under normal working conditions this would be unsafe as the pair might meet a tram coming towards them.  As these two were the last trams of the season they knew there was nothing else on the line (and they'd checked by radio with the stationmasters of course) so the drivers thought they'd put...

I hadn't realised it had been so long since the last blog but we've been busy.  Sorry about that. Our last publication of 2022 is just about due from the printer.  In fact it should have been here, but there were 'delays at the factory', so it missed its promised shipment date.  We're now hoping that Ramsey past & present will arrive next week, so it will still be in time for those of you looking for something for Christmas (?!), even if it's later than expected. Part of the problem with deliveries to the Isle of Man is, of course, the weather and how it affects shipping.  Rain is a nuisance, but worse are high winds, which can delay the boats.  Incidentally, other countries have ferries, we have boats. Our shipment will probably arrive on the Ben my Chree , the Steam Packet Company's largest boat and the one used for most freight.  The Steam Packet's fastcraft, Manannan , pictured above in Douglas harbour, is great for a quick crossing, but rarely ...