On Wednesday, 15th March, the Committee met Sir Philip Wombwell, the General Manager of the railway. A very useful discussion was held and many subjects of interest to Members of the Society were discussed. The following is a resume of the main points. The railway will re-open on Saturday 3rd June, the first train will leave Douglas at approximately 11.30am.  Four special trains will be run with twenty-seven carriages in all.

These will be marshalled into the outer platforms and five engines will be in steam on the centre road. The first train - for official guests, will be drawn by Maitland and will consist of seven vestibule carriages; the second train will be basically for photographers (at £1 per head) and special arrangements are being made for them to obtain good and unusual pictures; the third and fourth trains will be for the general public at 15/-d and 10/-d per head.

The first train will then proceed to St. John’s where there will be a six minute stop and proceed to Peel for refreshments. The remaining three trains will proceed at approximately fifteen minute intervals.  It is intended that the Peel and Ramsey lines be re-opened this year (the latter with the railcars) and the Port Erin line in 1968. A 21-year lease has been taken on the entire system, with an option to purchase in the 6 to 21 year period. 

Sir Philip made it clear that he wished the Society to play an important role in the working of the railway. As a general policy, all operating staff would be permanent professional employees of the railway, but there would be many opportunities for other types of employment, particularly volunteer labour. There is a great deal of work to be done, much of it requiring special skills, which needs to be done as quickly as possible. Anyone who wishes to help on a voluntary basis should get in touch with the Secretary of the Society.

Re-Opening Day Report

At 11.30am on Saturday, 3rd June 1967, his Excellency the Lieutenant  Governor of the Isle of Man gave the signal that was to start the railway running again, after a period of closure. As symbolic tape was stretched between North and South Line platforms and was broken by locomotive number 15 Caledonia, ex-Manx Northern Railway No.4, driven by the Reverend Teddy Boston, a fellow railway enthusiast. 

The first train departed for Peel at 11.45am, drawn by No.11 Maitland in the control of Hughie Duff, containing amongst others, the Lieutenant Governor, his A.D.C., the Attorney General, many members of the House of Keys, the Railway Directors, not hot the operating and parent companies, our President, Sir Paterson Frazer, our Chairman, Peter Craine. 

Also present were the Mayor and Mayoress of Douglas and the Highland Pipers who had piped His Excellency and Lord Ailsa to the train.  Following this train was the “photographer’s special”, drawn by No.10 G.H.Wood, which departed at noon and was succeeded at fifteen-minute intervals by No.5 Mona and No.8 Fenella containing other members of the society and the general public. Whilst en route champagne was served to His Excellency and the Directors travelling in the first coach, by Lord Strange’s barman “Chiefy” resplendent in white uniform.

The first train arrived at Peel at 12.30pm after a short stop at St. John’s, to be met by the Chairman of Peel Commissioners, Mr. Burden, with whom speeches were exchanged. A champagne buffet was then generously provided by the Commissioners and accompanying music played by the local

silver band.

By the time the “photographers special” had arrived and after a short stay to allow for the arrival of the two following trains, departed for St. John’s where it entered the northern siding to await the non-stop through passage of the returning Directors’ Train, of which excellent photographs could be taken, the sun having by this time appeared to brighten what had been, until then, a rather dull overcast day. By 2pm all special trains were back at Douglas and regular services on the Peel Line were able to commence, followed on Sunday by a special train to Braddan Church for the open-air service, and later by the first train to Ramsey.

Train Movements

Since these events there have been two re-incarnations of interest. The first was on 4th July when late evening running took place to Peel in connection with the Viking Festival, return trains being around midnight, complete with running lights and battery illumination for the Governor’s Coach. The second was on 11th July when regular services were resumed on the South line as far as Castletown, which will be extended to Port Erin as soon as a section of track relaying is complete.

Following the shortage of motive power caused by No.10 being under repair after the accident at Union Mills and No.5 developing a leak in the firebox, it was decided to steam No.15.

On Monday 4th September No.15 took the 2.5pm from Douglas to Castletown, the first passenger working by this engine since 1942.  Enthusiasts appeared with cameras (how the news got about is amazing!) and with much hissing and clanking Caledonia set off up the Port Soderick bank, which was taken at a snail’s pace with only three carriages on.  Port Soderick was reached after 35 minutes and at Castletown the arrival was an hour late but no-one seemed to mind, everyone was delighted with the engine, visitors and enthusiasts alike.  New morning No.15 did two trips to Peel and on 6th two more trips to Peel.

A feature of the services provided by Sir Philip [Wombwell] has been the greater use of the tourist carriages F.29-F.32 and F.35-F.36.  For example, on Wednesdays in August the set of six has been provided for the 10.00am Douglas to Ramsey and 4.14pm return in connection with the cheap inclusive fare of 10/-d, including lunch as the Mooragh Park Café.  (The last of these excursions was run on 13th September, but not with the tourist stock).  The Sunday morning short working to Braddan has similarly utilised this stock.  The Ramsey set generally in used has included F.37 one of the two Manx Northern Railway bogie carriages built in 1899.  The other, F.38, is in poor condition, but it is hoped to restore this during the winter for use next summer.

Rolling Stock Round-Up

Visitors to Douglas Station will have noticed several of the original batch of bogie carriages, including F.1.  these are provided with wood block brakes only and are consequently out of favour with the staff.  It is hoped, however, to utilise them in due time when the brake gear is removed.  Sir Philip’s intention in the future is to arrange the stock in rakes of uniform height and appearance.  It is understood that the unique “Foxdale” coach, F.39, is to have the internal fittings removed and to be converted to a camp carriage.

New Issue Timetable

On 11th September a new timetable was published showing reduced services to be provided for the tail-end of the tourist season, and applicable to the end of the month.  A weekdays-only service of three trains each way on the Peel and Castletown lines was shown, together with a Tuesdays and Fridays only train to Ramsey at 10.00am, returning at 3.54pm.  Sir Philip has informed to the committee that it is intended to provide a skeleton winter service, primarily to cater for goods and parcels traffic which it is hoped to promote.

Christopher White : Rolling Stock

Following on from the letter elsewhere in this issue, here are Mr. White’s notes from his visit to the island . . . the Mooragh Park Excursion attracts quite a crowd and the 10.00am to Ramsey carried about 200 passengers in five carriages F.29, F.30, F.36, F.32 and F.35, all saloons and in that formation.

Departure from Douglas was five minutes late (waiting for passengers) and No.11 got away to a good start. This train is supposed to run non-stop to St. John’s but it was flagged down at Union Mills by prospective passengers and this untoward stop helped make the train 10 minutes late ex-St. John’s.

There was a very fine start up the bank from here but from St. Germain’s onwards the running deteriorated; the combination of speed restrictions because of the state of the track, poor coal, excessive station stops, an extra stop at Kirk Michael to take water (the only water at Ramsey is supplied by a hose attached to an ordinary tap) and the heavy train was that arrival at Ramsey was 28 minutes late. After the initial excitement of the train and the scenic delights between St. John’s and Kirk Michael the last portion of this journey is very tedious with the slow running and stops every few minutes - it might be a good policy to weed out some of the stops on this section.

The return working of this train left Ramsey at 12.02pm (28 minutes late again) and carried out some shunting at St. John’s and finally arrived at Douglas at 1.52pm only eight minutes before it was due to leave again at 2.00pm. The train did leave almost on time but this time with Loco 5 and arrival at Ramsey was at 3.40pm (23 minutes late). There was just time to clean the fire, take water, oil up and get the two carriages that had been left in a siding since the morning and make a departure on time. In spite of every effort by the crew arrival at St. John’s was 16 minutes late.

There is no advertised connection from St. John’s to Peel off this train but we got off at St. John’s and found that there would be another train to Peel. This crossed the Ramsey to Douglas train at Crosby and turned out to be No.11 with F.44, F.10, F.11 and F.23 working the 4.20pm Douglas to Peel about an hour late. We went to Peel on this train and then returned with it to Douglas . . .

At St. John’s there was a delay of twelve minutes which amused some of the passengers and infuriated others, while the loco went and shunted in the carriage shed and finally produced two wagons M.59 and M.70 full of coal which the train then took to Douglas. 

This highlighted another problem which was the shortage of good coal - the usual heap at Douglas was mostly coal dust and one man was kept busy digging around in it to find lumps and later in the week a load of house coal was delivered by the N.C.B.

These few comments serve to show the difficulties under which the I.M.R. was working during our visit and the general impression of the railway to the casual visitor must have been of unpunctuality, dirt, and decrepitude. Very little carriage cleaning was done while we were there and the brass on the locos was not cleaned. 

Compensation existed in the clean new paint on the locos and certain stations, in the cheerful and helpful attitude of many of the staff, in the evidence of a forward-looking policy by the new management and above all in the fact that the railway is operating at all.

I for one had never expected to travel to Ramsey again in a steam train whatever happened to the rest of the system; I had not expected to travel on the south line this year. Whatever criticisms there may be must pale before the very significant fact that the railway is operational again. 

It is to be hoped that the financial results have been favourable - the increase in fares, the special trains and the abolition of the runabout tickets must have helped (although this last cramps the style of the impecunious enthusiast). For a first season, our week was most enjoyable, but in the future there must certainly be more emphasis on safety regulations, while cleaner trains and some smarter staff would greatly improve the public image.

Some Early Editions Of Manx Steam Railway News

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