Qualla: Upper Douglas Cable Tramway

Upper Douglas Cable Tramway: Introduction

Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Dr Neil Clifton, CC BY-SA 2.0. Two tramcars, numbered 72 and 73, spent forty years as somebody's house. After the Upper Douglas Cable Tramway closed on 19 August 1929, the cars were dragged up to Crawyn in Jurby, parked side by side, and joined into a single dwelling. The bogies stayed in place beneath them. A brick chimney was built between the two carriages to make the whole thing habitable. In late July 1968, the Douglas Cable Car Group found them still standing and took them home. The cable car you can see today at the Jurby Transport Museum is what was salvaged from those two patient bungalow-cars, restored over eight painstaking years.

Image: Dr Neil Clifton | CC BY-SA 2.0

Upper Douglas Cable Tramway: A Tram for the Steep Streets

Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Dr Neil Clifton, CC BY-SA 2.0. The Upper Douglas Cable Tramway opened on 15 August 1896, the result of a deal between Douglas Corporation and the Isle of Man Tramways and Electric Power Company. Douglas Corporation - the local authority responsible for the town - wanted public transport for the steep upper nei...

Image: Dr Neil Clifton | CC BY-SA 2.0

Upper Douglas Cable Tramway: A Bank Collapses, a Section Closes

Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Dr Neil Clifton, CC BY-SA 2.0. In February 1900, the operating company's parent collapsed. Dumbell's Bank had been one of the most important financial institutions on the Isle of Man, and its failure ruined depositors and businesses across the island. Douglas Corporation stepped in and took the tramway into pu...

Image: Dr Neil Clifton | CC BY-SA 2.0

Upper Douglas Cable Tramway: The Curious Numbering

Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Dr Neil Clifton, CC BY-SA 2.0. Whoever designed the fleet numbers had ambitions for the horse tramway it served. The cable cars' numbering started at 70 - not at 1 - so that the horse tramway's own fleet could be expanded into the lower numbers if needed. That expansion never came; the highest-numbered horse c...

Image: Dr Neil Clifton | CC BY-SA 2.0

Upper Douglas Cable Tramway: Bungalow, Restoration, Museum

Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Dr Neil Clifton, CC BY-SA 2.0. When the line closed, cars 72 and 73 were among those bought up for second lives. The pair were converted into the Crawyn bungalow at Jurby - bogies still beneath them, brick chimney between - and lived as a house until 1968. The Douglas Cable Car Group rescued them that summer a...

Image: Dr Neil Clifton | CC BY-SA 2.0