DCT was a traditional tram and bus municipal with two differences. one in retained horse trams, and two it retained its trams until its buses were absorbed in a state run amalgamation. Early bus tickets were often identical to tram tickets and this was much the case with DCT
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Douglas Corporation cable car 77 accident report 1919
the first Douglas cable car item, and for a known car, No 77, that we have ever offered in over forty years of selling.
The cable tramway was opened in 1896 from Victoria St to upper DOUGLAS, as a sweetener to Douglas Corporation, who were indifferent to whether it broke even till they acquired it after the Dumbell collapse in 1900, and were hoist with their own petard. In 1919 car 77 was descending Bucks Rd and passed a motor bus, and then as they got clear, a motorist in a carthrew his dooe open, scratching the paintwork of NO 77. SEEMINGLY THE CREW did not get the address of the driver or car registration.
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Transport handbill re unlimited weekly tickets on horse trams.
As late as the 1980s, 30p tickets would buy a full length ride on the horse tram and an UNLIMITED travel weekly ticket was £2, which is less than a single ride costs nowadays! Very few DCT handbills seem to have been produced or to have survived, making this example of great interest.
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70 PLUS Douglas corporation Transport Horse tram tickets 1950s-1969.
DCT used the traditional Bell Punch system adopted by most tramways until after decimalisation with conductors having a wooden rack of tickets which they issued and punched with a musical tinkle from the bell as they did so. Tickets had a four figure number, but as 9999 tickets would be used in a few days, they were prefixed with a letter and the year of issue so a ticket was Y61 5770. Even that was not enough so after working from to Z, they resumed with Aa, Ab etc. Most were thrown away, but at the end of the season left over stock was stored in the strong room in case they ran short of tickets late the following year when the previous year's tickets would be dug out. In the 1970s, I was told that the strong room was to be cleared and was on my own without a car, so filled a cardboard box with paperwork with the manager's approval and returned home to dad's delight with an array of horse tram ticket bundles. I could not save everything and over the years collectors have snapped up tickets but I was able to put together six sets of 70 pre-decimal issued from the mid-fifties to 1969. The older issues were printed by Bell Punch and the later ones by Williamson's. Older ones advertise Jacob's cream crackers on the back, just as the horse trams did, but later one advertised Port Soderick.
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1956 80th Anniversary Douglas Horse Tram commemorative ticket set.
In 1956, Auto-tickets of Birkenhead produced a set of special commemorative SOUVENIR tickets for the Horse tram anniversary on 7-8-1956. There was an adult all-the-way ticket from Victoria Pier to Derby Castle or vice versa at 6d.It was blue-grey and does not scan well. The child full journey ticket was pale salmon and was 3d. The midway stage was Broadway and there were separate grey and pink tickets for this at 4d each, but for children a combined stages ticket was issue in lilac so the conductor would punch the correct half. Although the adult tickets sold in 4 figures well under 1000 child short stage tickets were issued!
The only reason they survived was that I spoke to the manager when he said the strong room was to be cleared and returned home with a bulging suitcase, but given the variety of stuff I could only take a limited amount of anything.
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1984 DCT Horse Tram 5 and 7 day Multi-Rider tickets for child, adult and OAP FULL SET OF SIX.
In one of our other listings we referred to Multirider tickets in a handbill, and here is a FULL set of the six types on offer in 1984. Each ticket is approx. 4 x 3 ins on thin card and has no printers imprint which is unusual.
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Douglas Corporation horse tram bargain pack; tickets handbill, 70 misc horse tram tickets, 1956 anniversary set and 1984 multi rider tickets
A bumper pack of DCT collectibles, some such as the 1956 80th anniversary set in short supply for less than £50 for over 80 items!
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36 Douglas Corporation Transport traditional Bell Punch tickets 1948-1959
DCT used the traditional Bell Punch system adopted by most tramways andwhen motor bus services commenced before World War One adopted the same system, with conductors having a wooden rack of tickets which they issued and punched with a musical tinkle from the bell as they did so. Tickets had a four figure number, but as 9999 tickets would be used in a few days, they were prefixed with a letter and the year of issue so a ticket was Y61 5770. Even that was not enough so after working from to Z, they resumed with Aa, Ab etc. Most were thrown away, but at the end of the season left over stock was stored in the strong room in case they ran short of tickets late the following year when the previous year's tickets would be dug out. In the 1970s, I was told that the strong room was to be cleared and was on my own without a car, so filled a cardboard box with paperwork with the manager's approval and returned home to dad's delight with an array of horse tram and bus ticket bundles. I could not save everything and over the years collectors have snapped up tickets but I was able to put together six sets of 36 tickets from 1948 to 1959. They include the S overprint on the 1950 ticket to the White City amusement ground which was in Onchan so only buses that were registered to run outside the Borough of Douglas could be used. There are singles and returns to Kirk Braddan Church for the open air curch service on a Sunday which was also out of area. There are standard multi stage tickets for 2d, 3d, 4d etc where the conductor punched the start point and destination. There is a ticket in respect of Pulrose market and even a 4.5d value ticket!
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Douglas Corporation Horse Trams 14 traditional Bell Punch tickets 1975 series
Long after most municipals had abandoned trams, let alone horse trams,Douglas Corporation remained true to the traditional Bell Punch series of tickets, and this 1975 range shows the full variety of tickets which was the 4p 6p and 8p for different length journeys for children and 8p 12p and 15p for adults. TIckets were numbered with a prefix letter, such as B75 for the 6p child tickets up to 9999 and then the series restarted with C, D, e etc, as with the D75, E75 and G75 8p child series. For a few journeys this might not be sufficient for the whole season so a sub-letter was added such as Fa75, Ha75 with the 12p adult tickets. In this set of tickets we have covered all six types and as many different prefix letters as we were able to manage and added one ticket so a collector can mount them in an album displaying th Port Soderick advert on the back. Douglas Corporation had bought Port Soderick and ran it successfully for many years with evening entertainments in the bar and a frequent DCT yellow bus service to get people there and back.
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