Help Us With A Donation

With your generous support, the locomotive played her part in celebrating the significant milestone - the railway’s 150th anniversary - and thereafter was available for public display to help tell the history of the Isle of Man Railway and the evolution of the Beyer Peacock 2-4-0 tank locomotives. The nameplate pictured is one of the originals purchased at auction by the Association in 2022, from which a second replica has been cast together with a numerals for the tank, all of which were fitted to the locomotive upon completeion of cosmetic work.  Using the donation link to the right you can now support our next porject on No.9 Douglas.

Larger rectangular shaped cab spectacles were fitted rather than the small round spectacles on the previous engines.  A tool box was formed as part of the side tank platework inside the cab, rather than being a separate wooden chest mounted on top of the left hand side tank forwards of the cab.  The injector overflow pipes were carried down the outside of the water tanks to finish below footplate level, bizarrely dissecting the still centrally mounted brass name plates on No.4 Loch and No.5 Mona in such a manner that the letters of the names were spaced to allow for the pipe!  Engine No.6 Peveril was built one year later to the same design as No.4 and No.5, albeit her name plates were positioned on the forward part of her side tanks.   The image of No.4 (left) shows the original arrangement of injector overflow pipe explaining the letter arrangements on the nameplates and earlier heavier lining detail.

The locomotive was enlarged in 1914 by fitting a 3’ 3” diameter 160 pounds-per-square-inch boiler and 480 gallon side tanks, increasing her tractive effort by one-third.  Similar changes had been made to engines No.4 Loch in 1909 and No.6 Peveril in 1911. In the 1920s, the Railway’s standard livery remained Holly Green but with thinner black lining edged vermilion.  A mechanical lubricator driven off the left-hand leading crankpin was fitted in 1936, followed by steam and vacuum brake equipment.  Prior e distinctive tapered chimney with its copper cap and brass numerals were still a feature, as were the Salter safety valves and bell mouth dome as per the illustration to the left, also showing the enormous coal stack at Douglas Station, a feature for so many years.  The highly burnished handrails also seen here were a feature of the earlier years which persisted on some examples until quite late.  Note the small whistle.

The locomotive was purchased privately by the now-defunct Isle of Man Railway Society (later the Isle of Man Railways & Tramways Preservation Society and now reformed as The Three Foot Gauge Railway Society) for preservation in 1978 but remained un-restored, residing for twenty years in the old corrugated iron carriage shed at Douglas until it was demolished in 1999.  The locomotive was relocated for a short while into the Infill Shed created behind the Running Shed at Douglas.  She was later placed in a sealed tent with sister No.9 Douglas at the back of the new carriage shed.  No.5 Mona returned to Government ownership in 2012.  The locomotive was partly dismantled in 2020 for removal of asbestos, at which point the possibility of cosmetic restoration was first discussed.  It was moved to Port St. Mary for our volunteers to commence work on the frames and tanks in January 2022 and by December of that year the boiler (previously stored at Port Erin) and the cab sheets (with J.C.K. at Balthane) were reunited as work continued; the completed locomotive was unveiled as part of the 150th anniversary celebrations in July 2023, after which volunteers moved on to a similar project on No.9 Douglas.