The first of the final batch of six “Small F” carriages (save for the Empress Vans of 1897) delivered from the Metropolitan Carriage & Wagon Co., of Saltley Works, Birmingham in 1896, F.21 featured four first class compartments, one third class and a guards’  compartment with brake ducket and bulkhead lookout windows in common with others of the series.  

It also had narrower compartment windows and small panels between the compartments, as seen today on the restored F.15 now once again in traffic. Two first class compartments were removed in 1928 making the configuration G / 3rd / 1st  / 1st / 3rd / 3rd which it retains today, though notably now with a third first class compartment which is uncompleted.

It remained in regular traffic until the closure in 1965 and in common with all other stock sported a variety of liveries, from the original purple lake and off-white to two-tone austerity brown and finally the post-war red and cream which is still in evidence today.  I and also saw use under the Lord Ailsa regime, when it was  damaged in a collision on 21st August 1967.

This occurred west of Union Mills when the 12.20pm ex-Douglas Station was given the right away to proceed by the guard and a quarter-mile towards Crosby Station driver John Elkin spotted a train travelling in the opposite direction and immediately applied the steam brake, though a collision was unavoidable.  As a result, train guard Frank McMullin resigned his position.

The coupling gear was damaged as a result and records indicate that repairs were made but it saw little use after this incident as there was more than sufficient spare stock by this time and the damage was not deemed as a priority to be repaired.  Being timber framed and retaining wooden brake blocks its use was not favoured latterly and placed in storage.

Removed from storage at St. John's, F.21 left the Island in 1974, first finding refuge at Portmadoc on the Ffestiniog Railway (together with F.3); it was then sold to Alan Keef Ltd., then of Cote, Oxford along with the remains of F.3.  The bogies of both vehicles were subsequently re-sold to the Irish Narrow Gauge Trust, ending up at Cahir, Eire. 

It was briefly moved for possible use on the reborn section of the Tralee & Dingle Railway, before going to Dromod, southern terminus of the Cavan & Leitrim Railway in 1992 where work had commenced (with E.E.C. funding) to restore a five-mile section of this 3’ 0” gauge line. on which it had been intended to operate the restored carriage.

By the spring of 1999 issue No.123 of our official journal Manx Steam Railway News reported that during the intervening period the Isle of Man Railway had been kept aware of progress on a “slow re-build” and it seemed F.21 was destined to be marooned in the Emerald Isle forever, to quote the correspondent of the time.  In this period spasmodic work was done, albiet superficial.

However, in the Autumn of 1998 the project at Dromod was in need of a capital injection and the sale of F.21 was suggested and the undertook to purchase back the vehicle and return her home.  She left Dromod on 23rd November 1999, with Stephen Carter of the Laxey Towing Co., in charge and was loaded onto Mezeron’s Silver River in Belfast the following day, for shipment to Ramsey.

Arriving back shortly thereafter, due to shortage of space in Douglas Station during the work there, the carriage was taken by road to Port Erin Station for temporary storage in the engine shed, where she arrived on 25th November 1998 (it will be recalled that at this time a new carriage shed was under construction for the southern terminus).

The railway’s joiners initially began to complete the restoration though a change in management policy later saw work halted. The carriage was moved into the then-new carriage shed at Port Erin when it was completed and has remained here since 1999 - some reviews of work required and remedial attention have been carried out since.

F.21 remains on the prospective list for eventual restoration and return to traffic, and with the return of F.15 following extensive restoration in 2022, followed by the return of F.11 in 2024 with sister F.10 in 2026 there is hope for this well-travelled example of early stock to one day carry passengers once again on the line for which it was built.