Locomotive No.34 (1995)

Car 34 at Dhoon Quarry, July 2023

CURRENT STATUS AND LOCATION	YEAR LAST OPERATED	LIVERY
In service	In service	Yellow with Red Wasp Stripes

History:
No.34 has had a very varied one! In 1994, the idea to revive the Snaefell Car No.7 ‘Maria’, An electric locomotive built for freight (primarily coal to the Summit Hotel and Power Station below the Bungalow), was thought up for the Centenary Celebrations. However, it had been stored outside the Snaefell Car Shed from 1954, and was very rotten and in poor condition.

A decision was then made to build a replica, construction starting in the Derby Castle Bottom Shed during 1994, and then moving to the then-newly rebuilt Snaefell Car Shed at Laxey during August 1995. The new No.7 was outshopped a year later in 1996 with two G.E K11 Controllers and a pair of fabricated Milnes Trucks, fitted with original Mather and Platt traction motors (displaced during the 1977-1979 Aachen re-equipment programme, and parts kept in storage for re-assembly). After making appearances at a few enthusiast events in 1997 and 1998, it was stored at the end of the same year.

The M.E.R had been searching for a dedicated Works Car for quite some time, and, after the withdrawl of Car No.27 with electrical problems in Summer 2001, the plan was forward and later accepted to use the S.M.R No.7 replica with the ‘Atalanta’ diesel generator that had been previously mounted on and inside Wagon No.8.

It was then moved from storage in the Laxey Snaefell Car Shed in June 2003 to the Derby Castle Bottom Shed, to be rebuilt into its current form and renumbered No.34 (the next available Car number), using the Brush ‘D’ Trucks 988 and 989 from Car No.25. The car made it’s debut at the 2004 Enthusiasts Weekend, however it suffered several faults and as a result made its first running appearance in 2006. No.34 has since been used on dedicated works duties, in addition to appearing at several enthusiast events, hauling a trailer on short-hop journeys including on the Iisle of Man Railway in 2010 as well as more common territory on the M.E.R.

Following a number of years of minimal use, No.34 was moved to the Douglas Bay Horse Tramway in May 2019 to assist with the rebuilding of this line, making it the only item of rolling stock to have operated on all four Manx Government-owned railways.

During the Winter of 2020/21 No.34 saw workshop attention at Derby Castle with the locomotive fitted with traditional braking systems and Cods Mouth couplers, in common with the rest of the M.E.R. fleet.

Information: