A tram could trundle along Queen’s Pier carrying passengers this summer for the first time in almost 35 years.

Volunteers are continuing the ambitious restoration of Ramsey pier but are having to contend with the spiralling costs of materials.

So far six of the 60 bays have been completed with replacement steel for the next two bays, bays seven and eight, expected to be delivered next month.

If all goes to plan, these bays will be completed by the end of the summer.

Queen’s Pier Restoration Trust has been busy in recent weeks carrying out routine maintenance to the tram, with the aim of having it running along the pier this summer.

Apart from a short test run, the little engine and its trailer have not operated on the pier since the landmark closed for safety reasons in 1990.

Trustee Dennis Curphey said: ‘It is our intention to have the train running along the pier this summer.

‘The Railway Inspector has visited the pier to look at our set-up and has made some recommendations which we will now set in motion. He has to issue us with a certificate in order for the train to run with passengers.’ Mr Curphey said there was no confirmed date as yet for the delivery of the replacement steelwork for bays seven and eight from the Glasgow-based fabricators but he added: ‘We are looking for them in April and to have bays seven and eight completed by the end of the summer.’

He said the cost of the steel has increased a lot, rising from the original £35,000 a bay to £56,000.

Mr Curphey explained: ‘This is not just down to the rising cost of the steel itself but is also down to the rise in energy costs as there is a lot of cutting and welding which use a lot of electricity.’

He said there were also increased labour costs and the latest laws governing the process of galvanising have also had an impact on prices.

Replacement steelwork for the first few bays was craned in but that for the next three bays it was installed using a telehandler operating from the beach.

Mr Curphey said the steel girders for bays seven and eight will be also be lifted in from the beach as the machinery the volunteers are using will be able to reach - but the real challenge will come with the subsequent bays stretching further out into the bay.

He said: ‘We are currently looking at several ways of fitting the steelwork as lifting from the beach would involve getting bigger and bigger machines which is not really an option. We have to look at doing it all from on the pier itself.’

The Queen’s Pier Restoration Trust signed a five-year lease with the government in July 2017 to restore the first three bays of the pier.

This was completed within four years, with the project quickly becoming a real community effort. The trust then focused on phase two of the ambitious restoration, which goes up to bay eight, having signed an extension to the lease in 2021.

Bays four and five were completed in time for an event to mark the King’s Coronation and bay six was finished last autumn.

Overall restoration was originally set to cost £4.5m, with each of the 60 bays estimated to cost £75,000 but this was before the recent price rises.

Fundraising for the pier has been a real community effort.

Sponsors’ plaques, which invariably sell-out shortly after going on sale, have proved a particularly popular way of raising much-needed money for the project. Local firms have volunteered materials and services.