Representatives of the Supporters’ Association were delighted to hand over the completed 1873 van G.1 in the workshops at Douglas Station on 13th  March to representatives of their very good friends at Isle of Man Railways and the Department of Infrastructure.   This brings to fruition a project which started in September 2019 and has been delayed owing to the Covid-19 pandemic.  The completed van is now capable of being used on the railway for demonstration purposes on special event days, photographic charters, the promotion of transport heritage and periodic display in the Railway Museum adjacent to Port Erin Station.  This brings to a close another successful major project which has cost in the region of £35,000 to complete and see the historic vehicle transformed to its original condition, appropriately in time fo the 150th anniversary being commemorated by a series of events later in the year.

The completed van is the third freight vehicle to receive the attention of the Supporters’ Association following the restoration of M.78 in 1998 and H.1 in 2000 as well as a whole host of peripheral projects which can be viewed on our official Projects Page on this site.  The cosmetic restoration of No.5 Mona for the anniversary celebrations is also nearing completion and work is also ongoing on No.9 Douglas in addition to ongoing works in the railway museum.  The next smaller scale project to be embarked upon is assisting the railway in restoring the semaphore signal for Port St. Mary Station which was recently removed from the site.  G.1 is due to make an appearance in traffic as part of the extended transport festival at the end of July this year.  We would like to thank everyone who was involved in the restoration including Greenfield Construction and J.C.K. Limited among many others.

RESTORATION GALLERY - VISIT THE PROJECT PAGE FOR MORE INFORMATION & IMAGES