report on manx radio states that only 76000 people used the horse tram system, 108000 down on the total in 1995...................

SAD

There is so much in decline, Ian.
Including us two!
Yes, it is sad.
But, I am afraid that this is the way its going everywhere.
I wonder how much the Tourist Board are promoting it?
Could it be that its becoming a costly white elephant from their point of view?
It stands to reason that if tourism is no longer considered a mainstay of the economy, then its various elements and trappings WILL naturally decline...

Mike
MV

We used to ride the trams with our candy floss or manx ices in our sticky hands and see the world go by, round the wonderful panorama of Douglas Bay.......

I remember the days when perhaps we used local transport more, such as the Mystery Bus Tours, the round-the-course tours and the reasonably priced taxis...
because we often came over as foot passengers.

Since it became easier to bring your own transport, cars and bikes, it has caused the decline of Horse Trams and coaches, though I still like to go round the course once during my visit in the company of a famous TT rider or commentator. What happened to the Mystery Tour ?

We then went through that era when the whole of Douglas front was lined with bikes, sometimes three deep. That was worth a walk along the prom just to see every bike manufactured under the sun, and the rising sun.

There were hotels, there were promenade shops with quality souvenirs.

There were different capacity classes in the racing and we had early morning practice.....................

I'm glad I have the memories of 58 years of TTs in me head, and I still find that there is a magic feeling when I see the Island come out of the mist------

I could write a book !

It would give me great pleasure to write up 58 years of my own personal experiences---

But there has been quite a number of TT books released recently..

However MY experiences were ALL first hand and not nicked from other sources !!

Anybody willing to invest in my proposed TT novel ??

Ok Ian i dare to write you 50+ years at the TT?

I would read your book Ian, and I've been going since 1953!
You've hit the nail on the head Ian re the Horse trams, only you haven't hit it hard enough!
My first real memories are late 50's early 60's. It WAS a real pleasure to take a tram ride,I still enjoy it, but let's be honest we all have either hire cars, bikes or vans. And there's NEVER enough time.
But you touched on other aspects of TT fortnight life that are disappearing, like the varied classes,and the morning practices. It makes me wonder how many things CAN disappear, before we all look round, and say to each other, "begger, it's all gone!!"
So unless we all stand our ground, stand up and be counted for the sport we love, it WILL be all gone. And I really don't want to go and be bored stupid at Mallory in the way I was last May at BSB. I'm sure it's good, but it just ain't for me.
The thrill for me was at the Manx, in the Newcomers, waiting for the first man on the road, sat on a wall near Glentramman. The sound of the first bike on it's way through Glen Duff was amazing. Will someone please reassure me that I'm not losing the plot, and tell me that they find that exciting too?
You would think after 83 races it would be tailing off,(the interest that is)but I find that the races are a quite unbelievable spectacle. We must work hard to preserve them............and the trams!!

I for one always make time for a jaunt on the clippety clop machine as my boys call the horse trams.
Nothing quite like it anywhere (in Backpool they have the first electric trams)


Anyway also this year we went to Castletown on the steam train. One trip I will never make again is the electric train. It's a long story and my mate even wrote song about the last trip on that train.
The last line of the song goes
"the next time we go to Laxey I think we'll take a fec**** taxi

Compared to you old guys I'm only a teenager in IOM visits but even after racing in the Manx the thrill of watching is just the same as it was in 1985 when I saw my first TT from Signpost and the first bike to get there...........................number 3.

Nick is right we need to fight to preserve the TT and all thats good about it and all that surrounds it.

Time for some snot, blood, sweat and bulging eyes.

PS
Nick in the past week two different people on two different occassions have noted the my "big fat bottom" is smaller. Progress :?:

Hi Nick and the rest,


My first memory was standing in the paddock in 1947 with my Dad and an International Norton fired up right next to me...
The megaphone exhaust was angled so the "draught" of the pipe hit me full in the face..I did not like that !!
Do you know, I hated bikes that first year, and I spent more time on the beach than at the bikes.

However I quickly grew to love everything about the Island and the TT and the other races.

What a difference now ! That's why we don't use the trams, we are the biking people who stay in a huge group based on the grandstand area and none of us go down into Douglas for our candy floss, rock and kippers any more.

My favourite year was spending a lot of time with Jack Ahearn in 1963..

I felt he would do well that year but we never anticipated that he would split up the MV and Gileras in practice, doing a magnificent ton lap which was faster than the Gileras and not far behind Mike on the MV.

1966 was my other favourite year, when the TT was postponed until August because of a seamens strike.
I made three visits to the Island that year, practice week by plane, the middle weekend by car and then to the 50cc and Senior on the Friday by motorcycle club bus trip.

Now that's being keen and NO Mistake..

Every other year has one or more special memories, for instance I could mention Doug Randall and the chinese takeaways, or him doing the fosbury flop over a hedge at Kirk Michael with his Yamaha !!

I have boxes of slides , negatives, photographs and now Cds...

I could write a book..................................................................

I am in full agreement about us all trying to prevent certain change (for the worse) in the Island.
However, I am not sure how we go about it?
I am all for writng to the likes of Mr Cretney and others, but are we sure it makes any difference?
The next time an issue arises, lets have some rallying cries and I will be there to be counted!

Mike

Your book is a great idea, Ian! If you haven't visited Ian's website http://www.bbhmg.com you are in for a treat. He has an amazing number of personal photos and stories starting with the first TT that he went to in 1947 through to today.

Mike - I like your idea of a writing campaign. Politicians know that people are busy and they count on that to be able to make changes and get too much criticism. I read that when politicians get an email they consider it to represent the opinion of 50 people, if they get a phone call it represents 100 people and if they get a letter it represents at least 500 people. Even a postcard works. Can you come up with a plan for a campaign that we could do over the winter months? We need to let them know that we are watching and that we care.

Cheers, Harry

That was an excellent letter that you wrote ! Thanks for posting it and the reply. I hope it will inspire more of us to write. If I had seen your posting first I would have posted my message about the new IOM 2006 tourism brochure as a reply to yours instead of as a new topic. You might be interested in checking out the dismal recognition that the new brochure gives to the TT. Actually, it's beyond dismal!
Cheers, Harry

I really think that many of the postings relating to Mr Cretney are unfair and unwarranted and the man should often be commended for the support he has shown to motorcycle sport on the island.
Remember that as an MP his first duties are to his constituants and as Tourist Minister his brief would be to promote tourism to the maximum benefit of the island residents and visitors.
In any democracy it will be the majority opinion which will win the arguement not the one vote David Cretney holds.
The big problem I see at the moment is that the infastructure for tourism has been allowed to disintergrate over the years and now the island does not have enough reasonable priced accomodation available of the right sort.
Here in Norfolk we are facing similar problems on the Broads ,where many hotel owners are wishing to demolish or change the use of their pemises to redevelop the sites.Fortunatly in many instances the planning authorities are resisting these changes.

I agree that TT Techs letter was a good one.
I also agree with the sentiments regarding letting our views be known.
There is no reason why we shouldnt start and maintain a gentle campaign on the subject of the TT and the Island in general.
I for one, am more than happy to do something about it.
Any suggestions as to how we go about it?
Do we need something like a "Friends of The Island" movement?
Nothin too official, but organised and persisitent.
This is just the topic for this board!

MV
(Mike Vickers)

I like your ideas, Mike. As you said a 'gentle' campaign is probably going to be most effective in the long run. Politicians love praise. Tell them what they are doing well and then ask them to preserve what is important before it's too late. All the great minds on this board together can come up with a list of things to be preserved and improvements that we would like to see. I subscribe to several political groups that ask people to send letters, make phone calls or send emails to specific people on certain issues. The impact is quite amazing. I think we can be assured that the people who want things to change are not reluctant to make their voices heard.

Would you start a list to get things rolling?

Cheers,
Harry

Sorry for the delay as I didnt log in over the weekend.
I am quite happy to get things rolling , but not sure what it is you are suggesting.

Mike
MV

I have a couple of things in mind - communicating with the people who have the power to protect the things we value and also to make the changes that we would like to see. With politicians ( like children) I think it's important to praise them when they do well. Then they are more likely to listen to you when you have a specific complaint - and I think it has to be specific. Just saying that we don't like the way things are going is a waste of time.

I would suggest making up a list of things that we want protected or left unchanged. Then we should make another list of changes that we want.

There are lots of keen people on this site who can watch what is happening on the Island and let us know when things are being officially considered. But, the real impact comes from making your views known before something hits the newspapers. By then it has often been decided and politicians hate to back down.


One idea would be to collect signatures on petitions - one petition in favour of something and another against something else - or whatever seems to be most urgent. Malcolm might be kind enough to create petitions on this site where people could sign with their names, addresses, and emails. It is common on political online petitions for people to have the option to not have any or all of their information displayed online ( for obvious reasons) so only the recipients of the petitions see the information.

We could also have downloadable petitions that people could print out and collect signatures on. The petitions could then be collected and mailed to the appropriate person.

Another idea is to post action alerts asking people to phone, write or email specific people and POLITELY state the case. We could give a sample email or suggested points to make as well as contact information to make it as easy as possible for people to take action. A quick phone call has more impact than an email; a postcard or letter is even more effective. But , the main thing is to encourage people to speak out and let the government officials know that we care, we are watching and some of us are able to vote for or against them.

I've done a lot of talking LOL!! I would like to hear your ideas.
Cheers,
Harry