“Fenella was pleased but knew that the next bit might be even more difficult. Going downhill she didn’t need to work hard to Go. She needed to work hard to Slow! ” To the Rescue! , page 27

	To the Rescue!     Although the Tram Tales are aimed at children we try to make them reflect as accurately as possible the actual working of the Manx Electric Railway, not only in the text but also in the illustrations.     For this reason, eagle-eyed readers will notice that car 14 (Fenella to us) looks slightly different in different pictures. This is because the two ends of the tramcar differ slightly from each other. Depending which way Fenella is going, she is drawn slightly differently.     This difference is not unique to car 14. Aficionados of the MER routinely refer to the trams as having a ‘Douglas end’ and a ‘Ramsey end’. Douglas is the southern terminus of the line, and Ramsey its northern terminus. The tramcars are almost never turned round, but shuttle up and down the line, hence the traditional nomenclature. Those of you who are interested might like to know that the picture above shows Fenella’s Douglas end.   The most noticeable ‘end’ difference of late years was in tramcar 33. Each tram’s individual number is painted on the dash panel at both its ends. Car 33’s number appeared below the light at its Ramsey end and above the light at its Douglas end. As car 33 has now been repainted this difference is, sadly, no longer visible.		To the Rescue! Back by popular request, To the Rescue! is the fourth in our Tram Tales of the Manx Electric Railway series of children’s books. Fenella Fourteen is the smallest tram on the MER. She has been recently mended after sleeping for a long time in Ramsey shed, and is the only tram on the MER with ratchet brakes rather than air brakes. Not every motorman can drive her so she often has to stay in the shed. The Ninian Nineteen, one of the big hardworking winter saloons gets very ill when running the service. Fenella proves that Very Good Trams come in all shapes and sizes To the Rescue! is a welcome addition to the growing series and joins the other three Tram Tales Something on the Line, Stick to Safety and The Really BIG Surprise.

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