Bosses at Isle of Man Railways are investigating after a Snaefell Mountain Railway tram carriage suffered brake failure today.(Friday)
“The drama happened during a descent from the summit this afternoon.
It
is understood there was a momentary lapse in the electric braking
system which caused the tram the car to run about six ’pole
lengths,’ 200 metres, before the mechanical brakes could be
activated.
The
carriage ran across the roadway at the Bungalow but no passengers
were hurt.
Officials are probing the incident.
Passengers
were safely escorted on to a back-up tram to take them to Laxey.
Tonight Public transport boss Ian Longworth told Isle of Man Newspapers:
’Around
2.45pm a car descending Snaefell suffered a loss of rheostatic
braking. The rheostatic brakes depend on a continuous air and
electricity supply. It does from time to time cut out such as when
the bow collected loses contact with the overhead wire. This caused
the crew to use the original 1895 fell brake and approaching the
Bungalow there is no fell rail due to the road crossing. Once across
the fell brake was reapplied and the car was stopped. The passengers,
driver and brakeman were OK and transferred to another car to
complete the journey. Our engineers will check through the tram to
make sure all systems are correctly operating. I am also grateful
that the crew followed the correct procedures in stopping the tram
using the 1895 original Fell brake system.'
In
a totally separate occurrence, immediately after this, a passenger on
Snaefell fell at the Bungalow and had to receive first aid for a head
injury.”
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