Isle of Man Railways 150th Anniversary

[jhb171achill]

Anyone heading over to manxland next week for any of these events?

I'm going myself, to renew my acquaintance with this fascinating railway. I attended the centenary events fifty years ago too, but I doubt I'll see the 200th!

In 1973, it was still the old IOMR company which ran the system, as it would not be nationalised for another couple of years. It was still very old-world, with the full canopied Douglas station and all platforms in existence, though only the two faces of the (now gone) south lin e platform were in use.

Today, what's left of the station is a travesty - just a roofless Peel platform and all the sidings, yard and carriage shed gone...... but at least the Port Erin line is in fine form.

When I was there in 1973, myself and jhb171Senior took off to explore the now-closed, but completely intact, Peel and Ramsey lines. Everything remained in place, station buildings locked, but with office furniture and stationery in the ticket office still visibile through windows. Vandals had yet to turn their attentions to it; no doubt the law in place at the time permitting public floggings for vandals might have had some sway there..........

Ramsey station still had a rail-borne crane in it, at the goods bank, while at St. Johns there was a carriage shed full of carriages, plus a long siding full of the old Manx Northern Cleminson six-wheelers.

Not long after we got home the carriage shed in St Johns was set on fire, with the loss of many old stored carriages.

[Georgeconna]

Loved to be going but a different island instead next week, Inisbofin...No railways there when I last checked....

enjoy

[LARNE CABIN]

Had a weeks holiday in the Isle of Man a few years back. Travelled from Douglas to Castletown and Port St Mary by steam. Very nostalgic. Beautiful buildings and semaphores still in place at Douglas. Well worth a visit. Also traveled on the Electric Tramway to Ramsey.

[jhb171achill]

1 hour ago, Georgeconna said:

Loved to be going but a different island instead next week, Inisbofin...No railways there when I last checked....

enjoy

It’s beautiful too!

Cue for a 3ft gauge layout; the Inishbofin Railway….!

[Irishswissernie]

I considered going but am not really up to travelling far these days. I first visited in 1971 and have managed another 6 trips since; its a shame that they couldn't have retained the Peel line as well, then all the major towns on the island would still be rail linked. I have 12 albums on flickr covering all aspects of the Railways but the most interesting one is this one with some 450 photos.:

This covers the lines pre preservation from the 1930's and also the Ailsa  period.

I have just acquired another 120 odd images to add in due course.

[Irishswissernie]

18 hours ago, jhb171achill said:

Ramsey station still had a rail-borne crane in it, at the goods bank,

Just got this neg of it! Circa 1960. There is a similar crane preserved on the site of Union Mills station, the trackbed from Peel through Union Mills to the Douglas outskirts is now a footpath.

Edited June 24, 2023 by Irishswissernie

[Tullygrainey]

Locos at Groudle Glen and Sutherland in the railway museum at Port Erin, August 2021.

[Tullygrainey]

No 4 Loch, Port Erin station, 26/08/2021

 

 

 

 

 

 

[jhb171achill]

Superb stuff, gents!

Must dig up my dad's photos of it again from the 1930s (first visit) to early 1950s (second visit there)........

 

Here goes:

 

Edited June 23, 2023 by jhb171achill

[jhb171achill]

The rare No. 3 "Pender" is pictured at an ever rarer location - on the quays at Ramsey!

The man standing on Port Erin platform, and at the MER Ramsey terminus is my grandfather, HJAB.

1 hour ago, Irishswissernie said:

Just got this neg of it! Circa 1960. There is a similar crane preserved on the site of Union Mills station, the trackbed from Peel through Union Mills to the outskirts is now a footpath.

That's the one! It was a dull bauxite-red colour, probably the same as the locomotives had been up to the late 1960s Ailsa era.

[commerlad]

I'm going for the TRANSPORT FESTIVAL WEEK at the end of JULY

If you are there next week you are going to be a bit disappointed.

https://www.iombusandrail.im/media/2711/iom-year-of-the-railways-2023-event-program.pdf

[Northroader]

The one that sticks in my mind is leaving St.Johns on a Peel train, with the Ramsey line running parallel for quite a way out of the station. The Peel and Ramsey trains departed simultaneously, side by side over the level crossing, and you could look across and damn near touch the coaches of the Ramsey train. The engines would be pounding away, and after a few hundred yards the lines would split, the Peel line dropping down to the side of the river, the Ramsey line rising on an embankment to an over bridge over the main road. You could then enjoy seeing the Beyer Peacock 2-4-0T in full flight. Magic!

[jhb171achill]

17 hours ago, commerlad said:

I'm going for the TRANSPORT FESTIVAL WEEK at the end of JULY

If you are there next week you are going to be a bit disappointed.

https://www.iombusandrail.im/media/2711/iom-year-of-the-railways-2023-event-program.pdf

Not THAT much on 1st July indeed; but I was at the centenary celebrations on that day fifty years ago, so I just had to go back for the 150th!

7 hours ago, Northroader said:

The one that sticks in my mind is leaving St.Johns on a Peel train, with the Ramsey line running parallel for quite a way out of the station. The Peel and Ramsey trains departed simultaneously, side by side over the level crossing, and you could look across and damn near touch the coaches of the Ramsey train. The engines would be pounding away, and after a few hundred yards the lines would split, the Peel line dropping down to the side of the river, the Ramsey line rising on an embankment to an over bridge over the main road. You could then enjoy seeing the Beyer Peacock 2-4-0T in full flight. Magic!

Arrrrrggghhhh!!!! Ther "colourisation" Monster strikes again!

[Northroader]

True, it was the only picture I could find, red/brown would have been better.

[Branchline121]

On 23/6/2023 at 7:43 PM, Irishswissernie said:

I considered going but am not really up to travelling far these days. I first visited in 1971 and have managed another 6 trips since; its a shame that they couldn't have retained the Peel line as well, then all the major towns on the island would still be rail linked. I have 12 albums on flickr covering all aspects of the Railways but the most interesting one is this one with some 450 photos.:

This covers the lines pre preservation from the 1930's and also the Ailsa  period.

I have just acquired another 120 odd images to add in due course.

Peel... Is that not the town famous for these?

Seeing that on a flatbed would certainly be something to behold -- I wonder if they were ever transported on the line, or were they a bit late?

[jhb171achill]

What IS that thing?

[Galteemore]

4 hours ago, jhb171achill said:

What IS that thing?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peel_P50

Edited June 29, 2023 by Galteemore

[Irishswissernie]

7 hours ago, Branchline121 said:

I wonder if they were ever transported on the line, or were they a bit late?

 

At the 2014 Transport Gala they transported a wagon load of Peel 50's down to Port Erin behind the new diesel ( 2 ill fated designs together!) On return to Douglas they were unloaded onto the platform for display. 2 people could pick them up and they had no reverse just a handle on the back which you lifted them by and turned them around. They were too late for the old days of the Isle of Man Railway.

Edited June 29, 2023 by Irishswissernie

[Peter]

I just so happened to be on the Isle of Man last weekend when the festival was on. We took the electric train from Laxey to Ramsey return, and the return train to Snaefell the same day. We also took the steam train from Port Erin to Douglas. The journeys were very picturesque. I've never seen so many rail enthusiasts. There were men positioned all over the countryside, at the side of the road, in fields, etc taking photos. The rail paparazzi, it was quite funny. 

[jhb171achill]

1 hour ago, Peter said:

I just so happened to be on the Isle of Man last weekend when the festival was on. We took the electric train from Laxey to Ramsey return, and the return train to Snaefell the same day. We also took the steam train from Port Erin to Douglas. The journeys were very picturesque. I've never seen so many rail enthusiasts. There were men positioned all over the countryside, at the side of the road, in fields, etc taking photos. The rail paparazzi, it was quite funny. 

Tis a truly fascinating railway. I went over a month ago and spent the whole day going up and down on different trains......... happy to do it all over again any time!

[Westcorkrailway]

3 hours ago, jhb171achill said:

Tis a truly fascinating railway. I went over a month ago and spent the whole day going up and down on different trains......... happy to do it all over again any time!

can you do the entire IOM network in a day? I haven’t a notion and I would have asked Sean when I had the chance!

[jhb171achill]

1 hour ago, Westcorkrailway said:

can you do the entire IOM network in a day? I haven’t a notion and I would have asked Sean when I had the chance!

Yes, you can. Pick a day when you've a maximum timetable, get the first steam down and back, then the horse tram up to Derby Castle (electric railway terminus); tram to Laxey, then return from there up to Snaefell, and tram on to Ramsey. Depending on timetable, you might have to get a bus (or even taxi!) back to Douglas, but you would have covered it all in a day.

Any time I've been there, though, I have usually just taken one day on one, another day on the other.

What I did the first day I was there a month ago, was hop on a Douglas-bound steam train outside the airport, headed up to Douglas, and did a return to Ramsey on the electric line (in pouring rain!). Magical, superb..........

On a 1973 trip when jhb171Senior was alive, he observed that "this is just like the Donegal"....... which he had travelled on before railcars were much of a "thing" there..........

[airfixfan]

In the island at present reading a very good bus and rail timetable collected from the Airport this afternoon.

[airfixfan]

You can get bus 2 in the morning from Douglas to Port Erin

 Then first steam back to Dublin at 10.00in Douglas for 11.05. Our plan tomorrow

[commerlad]

 

14 hours ago, airfixfan said:

You can get bus 2 in the morning from Douglas to Port Erin

 Then first steam back to Dublin at 10.00in Douglas for 11.05. Our plan tomorrow

Enjoy it, I have just got back from there after a 10 day stay for the celebrations.

[Georgeconna]

16 hours ago, jhb171achill said:

Yes, you can. Pick a day when you've a maximum timetable, get the first steam down and back, then the horse tram up to Derby Castle (electric railway terminus); tram to Laxey, then return from there up to Snaefell, and tram on to Ramsey. Depending on timetable, you might have to get a bus (or even taxi!) back to Douglas, but you would have covered it all in a day.

Any time I've been there, though, I have usually just taken one day on one, another day on the other.

What I did the first day I was there a month ago, was hop on a Douglas-bound steam train outside the airport, headed up to Douglas, and did a return to Ramsey on the electric line (in pouring rain!). Magical, superb..........

On a 1973 trip when jhb171Senior was alive, he observed that "this is just like the Donegal"....... which he had travelled on before railcars were much of a "thing" there..........

and don't Forget Groudle Glen, Laxey Mine and the Miniature railway in the Zoo!

[airfixfan]

Due to good weather yesterday and poor weather forecast today

 Did this today 08.50 bus No 2 Douglas to Port Erin. 10.00 train to Douglas. Coffee then No 3 bus Douglas to Laxey. 12.15 train to Snaefell and lunch at the Summit

 13.30 back to Laxey. 14.40 to Ramsey. 15.40 back to Douglas.  17.00 Horse tram along the promenade.

Edited August 3, 2023 by airfixfan

[David Holman]

Love the IoM railways, but less than two hours from Calais is the Baie de la Somme Railway. Spent a couple of days down there recently & it certainly seems to be thriving. Three trains in action, two steam, one diesel with the steamers in charge of no less than nine, fully loaded bogie coaches, doing six trips each day. The line is metre gauge. The first loco is an 0-6-2T, the other is a 2-6-0T

 Very well cared for too, as these pictures show.

[Mike 84C]

Baie de la Somme  brilliant line,  visited some years ago I'll post some pictures if I can find them.

[Roger]

I have been reading a lot of older magazines recently and thought that those interested in this thread might find links to articles about the Isle of Man interesting.

The first of these comes from the late 1950s when the Manx Electric Railway was nationalised. .... It was 1957 when the Manx Electric Railway was nationalised by the Manx Government. The Modern Tramway Journal reported on this in the late 1950s.

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2023/06/19/the-modern-tramway-part-7-the-manx-electric-railway/

The Modern Tramway Journal returned to look at the Manx Electric Railway in 1962, five years after nationalisation, to assess progress. ...

The report was divided between the June and July 1962 editions of the journal. ...

 

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2023/08/06/manx-electric-tramway-1957-to-1962-a-review-5-years-after-nationalisation/

Edited September 8, 2023 by Roger
Correcting text.