The Isle of Man's heritage railways have just finished a week of special events to celebrate... well, their existence really.  Nowhere else in the world has public transport still using its Victorian and Edwardian rolling stock.

The heritage railways really pushed the boat out (pushed the tram out??) and showed off all sorts of vehicles which the public rarely see.  Above is a back view of car 34 towing trailer 51 and heading north round Bulgham; definitely NOT a normal combination.

Car 34, sometimes known as the Flying Banana but officially called Maria, is a very odd vehicle not only to look at, but also in how she works.  She's powered by diesel - the only rail vehicle dedicated to the Manx Electric Railway which is - but is operated using the same sort of electric controller as all the tramcars.  The thinking is that anyone who can drive a tram can drive her without additional training.  She's a works car so can travel along the line when the electricity is switched off and take the engineers to where they can repair the overhead.

Usually Maria would be coupled to trailer 52, which is the wire car and carries a scissor lift plus huge rolls of replacement overhead wire.  If you want to see what trailer 52 looks like, have a look at the front cover of Power Poles and Platelaying in the transport section of our published books.  The 34+52 combination leaves no room for passengers however.

So, for part of the transport festival, Maria was coupled to super-light-weight trailer 51 so that a lucky few transport enthusiasts could say they'd ridden behind her.  

The few were even fewer than intended as Maria promptly failed at one end.  What you can just about see in this photograph is the silhouette of the motorman (driver) as he is having to drive Maria from the back, i.e. the Douglas end.  Her conductor is stationed at the front being the driver's eyes and ears and communicating with him by hand signals.  The enthusiasts on board got their ride, but the rest waiting, didn't.

The transport festival went well though.  There were very few hiccoughs (or at least very few obvious ones - the staff might think differently) and even the weather was kind.

Loaghtan Books is in the north of the island, so events near us were celebrating 125 years since the Manx Electric Railway reached Ramsey, the MER's northern terminus.

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