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Mystery hole in the cabs of Snaefell car no. 7

The Yahoo model-tram group yielded no response to the question repeated below. Maybe someone in this Google group can shed some light here.

Can anyone enlighten me on this one? I am building a 7mm scale model of the Snaefell Mountain Railway's coal tram 'Maria', No. 7. For those who are not familiar with this vehicle, David Lloyd-Jones described her as 'a bad smash between a runaway open wagon and two garden sheds [the cabs at both ends], mounted on a pair of power bogies'. All available drawings, photographs, and the full-size replica show a circular hole on the rear face of each of the two cabs. Located centrally just below the roof, this looks like the ideal headlight position. Except that it is on the wrong face of the cab.

What is this circular aperture for? And come to that, why did 'Maria' not have any head or tail lights? Were these perforated panels meant to be on the front faces, and did the carpenter make a mistake?

Here:

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a recent picture of the car, minus bow collectors, wagon sides and grey colour, but with generators, yellow livery and modern head/tail lights. And the circular hole.

Am looking forward to your replies - as to any discussion of Manx rail topics.

Rob Kievit, Hilversum NL

Reply to
robkievit
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In message , robkievit writes

Is that really the same car? It has a different running number (34) and is running on different bogies (The gauge at Derby Castle, Douglas, is the standard MER 3 ft. instead of the Snaefell's 3 ft. 6 in. gauge).

Reply to
Jane Sullivan

robkievit wrote in news:1189945301.149748.103090 @n39g2000hsh.googlegroups.com:

This isn't a google group - although to be fair google does leach content from here - as it does from all over the internet and usenet.

Sorry, not a very helpful answer as I know bugger all about the Snaefell mountain railway. :-(

Reply to
Chris Wilson

In message , robkievit writes

All available ... photographs ... ?

F K Pearson, "The Isle of Man Tramways" (David & Charles, 1970, SBN 7173

4740 3) page 215, has a picture of this car, on the bogies from passenger car No. 5, at Laxey depot in September 1954, and it clearly shows those holes "plated over" with square pieces (of wood, from the thickness of it).

S Basnett & K Pearson, "100 years of the Snaefell Mountain Railway" (Leading Edge, 1995, ISBN 0 948135 59 X) page 24 has a drawing of this car, dated 1965.

This is just a guess: maybe a pole was put between them, and a tarpaulin was slung over it to keep the cargo dry in the awful weather.

Another guess: Because it only worked in daylight in the winter (to take the next season's stock of coal up to the generating station just below the Bungalow), and was the only thing on the line when it was in use.

No.

Reply to
Jane Sullivan

Thank you for your views. Yes, it is the same car. After its inaugural run in 1996 (I believe), running on two reconditioned original Snaefell bogies, car no. 7 was stored and rarely, if ever, used on the Snaefell Mountain Railway. In 2003-4 it was transferred to the Manx Electric Railway, mounted on two 3' gauge bogies, and rebuilt as works car 34. See the bottom of this page:

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some more pictures.

The 'bar and tarpaulin' suggestion sounds plausible. But the tram mostly transported just coal; that is not really a vulnerable load. On other railways that was carried in open vans, so why the worry about the rain? Maybe we'll never know.

Rob Kievit Hilversum, NL

Reply to
robkievit

Wasn't it also sometimes used to take stores, workmen's materials etc up to the hotel at the summit which would have required protection from the rain?

Alan

Reply to
Alan P Dawes

I assume from the picture the tram has been regauged and now operates on the Manx Electric railway as their no 34?

John

Reply to
John Firth

In message , robkievit writes

Er, whddya mean "inaugural run in 1996"? The car was shifting coal from

1900 to 1924 (when the power station was converted to a substation) and is likely to date from 1895. Did you get the wrong century?
Reply to
Jane Sullivan

The 'original' is - as I understand it - still a pile of bits at the Laxey SMR sheds. The one which ran in 1996 was a replica rather than a repair of the original.

Check out the pictures at

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- Freight Cars

With regards to the 'hole' - it does look like the same size as a telegraph pole, but I think that would be rather heavy to be supported by the rather light structure of the cabins?

Reply to
Lester Caine

See bottom of

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;)

Reply to
Lester Caine

Just conjecture but is not more likely that they held lamps to illuminate the load area. It could easily be a local modification using a couple of spare lamps when such things were easily available and removed in later years when another car required a lamp unit replaced due to corrosion or whatever. G.Harman

Reply to
oldship

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