After eleven years of working as an engineer carrying the responsibility of ensuring that more than a million visitors were transported safely between the lower and upper promenades Alan Ismay drove Saltburn's Victorian Cliff lift for the last time this Sunday. The trip marked the last summertime run for the lift and Alan's retirement. This season a total of 99,904 passengers have experienced the 55 second journey on the cliff lift's rare water powered system which dates from 1884.
A former customs and excise officer, Mr Ismay commented that many of his passengers did not understand why they sometimes had to sit and wait for the lift's water balanced mechanism to work and were baffled by the system.
Alan will be staying on to welcome his successor as Redcar & Cleveland Borough Council will be interviewing applicants later this month and he will be helping the annual winter maintenance programme. Its attraction is also strong enough to make Alan think twice when reopening time comes round on Good Friday, April 9. "I might be back to do a bit of relief work," he admitted.
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