Friday 24th July – Monday 31st August (Open daily)
10am -5.30pm (last admissions 4pm)
10am – 4.30pm (last admissions 3pm)
Tuesday 1st September – Sunday 1st November (Closed Fridays except for 30th October)
10am -5.30pm (last admissions 4pm)
10am – 4.30pm (last admissions 3pm)
Saturday 14th March – Thursday 23rd July (Closed Fridays except for Derbyshire school holidays).
10am -5.30pm (last admissions 4pm)
10am – 4.30pm (last admissions 3pm)
130 years ago, on 20th August 1895, Britain’s first and only electric mountain railway was officially opened, with public services starting on the following day. The Snaefell Mountain Tramway, as it was then known, was built and equipped in record time to provide a direct link between the existing Manx Electric Railway’s Laxey station and the 2,036ft summit of the Isle of Man’s iconic ‘Snow Mountain’.
Construction of the 4.66-mile-long line began in January 1895 and was completed just seven months later. This was in spite of the occasional 1 in 12 gradients to be negotiated, and the month-long delay due to bad weather during February of the same year.
To cope with the gradients, a central rail known as a Fell rail was laid midway between the two 3ft 6inch gauge running rails. This provided auxiliary braking power when gripped by caliper brakes operated from descending tramcars.
Although it had been envisaged that the same system could provide additional adhesion for ascending tramcars also, this proved unnecessary once it was discovered that they could accomplish 1 in 9 gradients without any assistance.
The overhead line, supplied by Mather and Platt, took just ten days to erect. The six trams, built to a similar design as those on the Manx Electric Railway, were also delivered in time for the opening. They were equipped with four Mather & Platt 25hp motors, two of which were mounted on each of the plate frame bogies. They were also fitted with a pair of Hopkinson patent bow collectors that were vertically mounted and semi-rigidly fixed to each end of the tramcar, to ensure that one would always be in contact with the overhead, even in the windiest of conditions on the mountain.
The original livery was Prussian Blue and cream, with Snaefell Electric Tramway painted on the sides. This was later replaced with the current red, white and varnished teak. They were originally supplied without glazing, but the striped canvas roller blinds afforded inadequate protection for passengers, resulting in the fitting of glazed sliding windows by the following April.
However, the glazed windows made the interiors unbearable when closed. This led to the addition of clerestories to provide additional ventilation, a process which was completed by 1897. By this stage, the addition of two extra single seats beside the doors brought the seating capacity up to 48.
The service was so popular that even with a return fare of 2s 0d (10p, but equivalent to £16.80 in today’s money), the trams were taking an average of 900 passengers per day to the summit and back. This enabled the original Snaefell Mountain Railway Association to sell the undertaking in December 1895 to the Isle of Man Tramways and Electric Power Co. for £72, 500. This was more than twice the £32,500 it had cost them to build, and represented a very impressive rate of return for the original investors!
The continuing popularity of the Snaefell line with visitors resulted in the construction of an impressive new hotel with 100’ frontage alongside the Summit railway terminus. This was also completed with astonishing speed, opening for visitors on 10th August 1906, just four months after work began.
The boom in tourism also led to construction of a new hotel, which became known as the Bungalow. This was located at Halfway, where the line crosses the mountain road that now forms part of the TT racing circuit.
Financial disaster struck in February 1900 following the collapse of local Dumbells Bank, which had provided £150,000 in loans to the Isle of Man Tramways and Electric Power Co. Fortunately, it was not difficult to find purchasers for such profitable enterprises, and both the Snaefell and Manx Electric lines were taken over by a new organization – the Manx Electric Railway Company – in November 1902.
Passenger traffic on the line was disrupted for the duration of the Second World War and resumed on 2nd June 1946. After an initial post-war boom in the island’s tourist industry, passenger numbers began to decline during the 1950s. This led to both lines being nationalized on 6th November 1956. The Bungalow Hotel was also closed and demolished not long afterwards.
Initial plans to adopt a new green and cream livery proved unpopular and were abandoned in 1963 after only two of the cars (nos. 2 and 4) had been repainted. They reverted to the standard red, white and teak livery, which has mostly endured ever since.
By this stage, both trackwork and rolling stock were showing their age. In order to replace the central Fell rail, a steel mill in Workington had to order new rollers, since that type of rail had not been produced for the past sixty years. One of the tramcars – No. 5 – was almost completely destroyed after catching fire, shortly after its arrival at the summit on 16th August 1970. However, it was rebuilt to the original design. At 75 years old, the entire fleet was in need of refurbishment as the motors and control equipment needed replacing.
Fortunately, the tramway was able to source a suitable supply of second-hand equipment from a recently closed tramway in Aachen (Germany) that was looking to dispose of eleven metre-gauged tramcars that had been built in 1956-7. Seven of these were acquired by the Snaefell line, and London Transport’s Acton works used the motors and control equipment from six of these, together with new bogies that were built to match the appearance of the originals. This left one set of equipment from the Aachen trams as a spare.
Shortly after the refurbishment programme had been completed in early 1982, a disastrous fire gutted the Summit Hotel on the night of 5th/6th August, which disrupted services for a few days. A temporary tram stop was installed just short of the hotel, which reopened in time for the 1984 season.
Since then, the station buildings at Laxey were refurbished in 1994 and the original working fleet of 6 passenger tramcars has been reduced to four. However, reconstruction work is being carried out on car No.s 3 and 6.
With thanks to Museum volunteer Jim Dignan for producing this article.
Image References:
Image 1: Courtesy of Manx National Heritage: https://imuseum.im/search/archive_record/view?id=mnh-museum-553998&type=archive&tab=all&from=&page=2&term=snaefell+mountain+tramway&size=20&sort=&filter=&view=&images=&ttmgp=0&rfname=&rlname=&machine=&race=&raceyear=&linked=0&pos=25
Image 2: Courtesy of Manx National Heritage: https://imuseum.im/search/archive_record/view?id=mnh-museum-123966&type=archive&tab=all&from=&page=2&term=snaefell+mountain+tramway&size=20&sort=&filter=&view=&images=&ttmgp=0&rfname=&rlname=&machine=&race=&raceyear=&linked=0&pos=33
Image 3: D K W Jones/ National Tramway Museum collection.
Image 4: Courtesy of Manx National Heritage: https://imuseum.im/search/archive_record/view?id=mnh-museum-554006&type=archive&tab=all&from=&page=&term=snaefell+mountain+tramway&size=80&sort=&filter=&view=&images=&ttmgp=0&rfname=&rlname=&machine=&race=&raceyear=&linked=0&pos=22
Images 5, 6: National Tramway Museum collection
Image 7: M J O’Connor/ National Tramway Museum collection.
Image 8: Photo R B Parr, courtesy of Manx National Heritage: https://imuseum.im/search/archive_record/view?id=mnh-museum-554003&type=archive&tab=all&from=&page=&term=snaefell+mountain+railway+5&size=80&sort=&filter=&view=&images=&ttmgp=0&rfname=&rlname=&machine=&race=&raceyear=&linked=0&pos=3
Images 9, 10: Jim Dignan.
