Brake Composite F.8
One of two similar bogie carriages, the other being F.7, purchased in 1876 from the Ashbury Carriage & Wagon Co., Ltd., unusually with four open third class compartments next to the guards' compartment with one single third class at the opposite end; this was amended in 1885 to include two central first class compartments complete with plush interiors and curtains in the windows. Note the earlier bogie stock was slab sided, later batches having tapered lower panelling. Historian James Boyd states these were later changed to make it consist of five individual third class compartments but eyewitnesses state the two first class details were still in place when it was destroyed. It was withdrawn from traffic still retaining the utility two-tone brown livery, one of the last remaining examples to do so. Stored behind the carriage shed at Douglas Station until early 1971, at this point it was removed to the yard to the spur on the release road, put up on blocks, the bogies removed and stripped of all salvageable parts and destroyed by controlled fire. Only the pony trucks remain today,
Fleet No.:
Year:
Builders:
Length:
Width:
Height:
Status:
F.8
1881
Ashbury
35’ 0”
7’ 0”
9’ 4”
Scrapped
Above: F.8 was possibly one of the last surviving examples of a carriage retaining the utility two-tone brown livery when it was destroyed by controlled fire. This rendering shows how the carriage may have appeared when latterly in service prior to withdrawal and storage behind the old carriage shed at Douglas Station. It was one of two carriages delivered in 1881 from Ashbury Carriage & Wagon Co., Ltd. which had it interior configuration amended in 1885.
(Photo: I.o.M.S.R.S.A.)
The End - Douglas Station
March 1971 (Jeffrey Kelly)
After The Fire - Douglas Station
March 1971 (Jeffrey Kelly)
Port Erin Station
August 1938 (A.E. Sparrowe)
The End - Douglas Station
March 1971 (Jeffrey Kelly)
Douglas Station
June 1969 (William Cubbon)