This unique carriage has one of the most interesting histories of all the rolling stock on the railway and is a remarkable survivor.  There follows a full biography penned by the Supporters’ Association for the restoration of the carriage to 1887 condition for their Winter Photography event in February of 2013 and revised since that time.  Today the carriage is in regular traffic in peak season and was repainted and the bogies overhauled in 2022-2023.

Delivery & Early Days

Following quotes tendered in the previous months, the Manx Northern placed an order in May 1886 with the A.S. Nelson & Co., Ltd., for a single passenger coach for the new Foxdale Line.  This work was subcontracted to the Oldbury Carriage & Wagon Co., Ltd., with a specified delivery date for that summer.  In the event it arrived late (partially due to being delivered in error to Douglas and not Ramsey, necessitating its removal by rail at the courtesy of the I.M.R. to St. John’s) and was stored in the carriage shed at Ramsey Station, not used until the start of the following season, at which point it was used exclusively on the Foxdale Line.  It was the only carriage fitted with sanding gear which was fitted for use on the heavily graded Foxdale Line.  It was situated in the guards’ compartment were two pipes sticking up out of the floor and going down to the bogie underneath.  If required, the guard sprinkled sand down the pipes onto the rail to stop the vehicle, sliding.  The equipment was removed during one of the recent rebuilds. 

Initial Ownership

Owing to a financing arrangement when the vehicle was delivered, the Manx Northern were unable to pay for the coach so a lease was put in place whereby the coach remained the property of the Bristol & South Wales Railway Carriage & Waggon Co. (who took on the lease terms from A.S. Nelson & Co.), who were purely a finance company and wagon hiring company, for an agreed period.  Accordingly, the solebars were fitted with plates denoting the owners until such time as the final payment was received.  Manx Northern Railway (Hillside Publishing, 1980) goes into greater detail on this issue.  This is known to have been a three-year contract so it is most likely that the plates were removed by 1890 at the latest.  No known photographic evidence shows these plates in position.

Mis-Spelt Heraldic Device

It is recorded that the coach carried the newly-commissioned coat of arms of the Manx Northern Railway in gold and blue on the doors of the first class compartments (the only such vehicle to carry it), complete with mis-spelled motif.  This crest appears at the top of this article albeit with the corrected spelling of Quocunque Jeceris Stabit rather than the incorrect Cocunoque Lecris Stabit of the original design which was quickly amended according to Manx Northern Railway (Hillside Publishing, 1980).  The crest carried by the carriage today is faithful to this historic anomaly.

Layout & Configuration

When delivered to the railway the coach had two open third class compartments and spacious guards’ compartment (Guard / 3rd 3rd / 3rd 3rd) with a seating capacity of 32.  Within twelve months of delivery a solitary first class compartment was created (Guard / 3rd / 1st/3rd 3rd) for use on the Foxdale Line where first class accommodation was offered but no existing suitable stock had any compartments of this type.  From delivery the guards’ compartment was at the St. John’s end of the coach; however, prior to works carried out in 1932 the vehicle had been turned so that the guards’ compartment was at the Ramsey end.  It would remain like this until 2010.  This configuration was retained until 1968 when the coach was selected by Lord Ailsa to be his personal camping coach, at which time some internal compartments were removed.  For the centenary of the Manx Northern in 1979 it reverted to original format and remains in this configuration today, still with the guards’ compartment at the Douglas end.  In the event that the guards’ compartment was required for use by the public it was possible to remove the brake wheel and handle, these being stowed beneath the ducket seats when not in use.

Numbering & Sequencing

When delivered to the Manx Northern in 1886 this vehicle carried the number No.17, sequential with the other stock delivered; as further stock was delivered it was renumbered No.15 in 1900 to make way for the two Hurst Nelson bogie coaches delivered, these being allocated Nos. 16 and 17.  Upon the takeover in 1904 the coach appears to have been briefly numbered 15R to denote its northern origins, but it was allocated F.39 shortly thereafter in I.M.R. sequence, with the following coach, half-brake F.40 arriving in 1907.  It was to carry this number thereafter, save for a brief spell from 1979 to 1983 when it was reverted to No. 15 to mark the centenary of the Manx Northern Railway, changing back to standard fleet livery and numbering later.

Original Use

Within the first six months of arrival the centre compartment was upgraded to First Class at the behest of Captain Kitto of the Foxdale Mining Co., leading to it becoming known as Kitto’s Coach by the staff.  He is known to have used it regularly on the Foxdale Line from where it rarely ventured.  It was worked out from St. John’s with the locomotive propelling it up to the junction points, and being the only brake other than the loco, any goods traffic would be positioned between it and the locomotive.  It was used exclusively on the Foxdale Line until its closure to passengers in 1940, latterly after Foxdale Station had ceased to be manned and services were still run, the train guard would be responsible for issuing any tickets and collecting fares, a ticket box was fitted tickets served from the droplight in the guards’ compartment.

Later Use

Only a minimal service was operated on the branch towards the end of its life and these services would be worked by the locomotive of an ex-Peel train, timetabled to be in St. John’s in time to do the approximately half-hour run, allowing for run rounds, etc., to be back in time to connect with the arrivals from Douglas and Ramsey.  After the closure of the branch it saw use on short workings between St. John’s and Peel on winter services but it appears to have rarely ventured beyond this territory.  It was a common sight in the station yard at St. John’s from this point on, not seeming to venture very far, save for Tynwald Day when famously every item of rolling stock was pressed into traffic for the annual open-air ceremony a short distance from St. John’s.  By the time of the railway’s forced winter closure at the end of the 1965 season it had seen minimal use for a number of years.  When the Marquess of Ailsa took over the railway in 1967 he selected the vehicle for conversion into his own personal camping coach, necessitating a change in configuration and removal of partitions.