"A loving wish from Douglas". That is what it says on our floral design postcard showing Manx Electric Railway car 7 (and also a goods wagon) at the Douglas, Isle of Man tram terminus. The card is number 2334 in the Philco series, which was printed in Germany around 1910, although the view itself probably dates from circa 1905. Our example was posted on 29th August 1919 from Douglas to an address in Scotland. Philco were well known for such greetings style postcards.
The verse at the foot of the card reads:
"There's plenty to beguile the time
And lots of things to see,
But very oft though far away,
My thoughts will stray to thee.
The small view left is also from Philco and is card number 2526, so was produced a little later, and ours was posted in 1920 from Douglas to Birmingham. It uses the same photograph of Douglas but on a more conventional postcard. The colour tinting of this card is somewhat different, the floral version being more accurate.
We have described the Manx Electric Railway before, (see Postcard)
Car 7 on our cards was one of a batch of six cars, numbered 4-9, built by G.F.Milnes in 1894. They had longitudinal seats for 36, giving the trams the nickname 'tunnel cars', and originally ran on Milnes plate-frame bogies with electrical equipment from Mather & Platt. Cars 4 and 8 were lost in the 1930 Laxey depot fire, but the other four remain in service although there have been modifications to seating and bodies over the years and they now have Brush type D bogies with four 25 horsepower SEHC motors and with General Electric K.12 controllers (converted from K.11). Car 7 itself has recently been restored after having been used for many years for works duties.
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