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 on a show for enthusiasts.

    It was spectacular, despite the rain and oncoming night.

    In the photograph above, car 9, the illuminated tram, is running wrong line, and both are heading up the hill away from the senior partner who had just got off.  Of course, if a passenger wants to alight, then both trams have to stop if they are to stay in parallel.

    Waving from the back platform are the two conductors, Reuben in car 5 and Leslie in car 9.  Leslie also drives but was conducting for the last run.  We'll see them next year.

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