Purchased for the opening of the Manx Northern Railway on 23rd September 1879 from the Swansea Carriage & Wagon Co., this particular example was unique among the set of fourteen, in that it had First Class accommodation across three separate compartments, with a dedicated doorway for each.

In each, seating was provided around the circumference with an additional Ottoman-type central seat, holding fourteen  including two on the Ottoman, although by 1889 James I.C. Boyd recalls that the central seat had been removed and the overall capacity updated to twenty-four passengers. 

Brown moquette seating was upholstered to waist height as delivered, with Lincrusta (embossed patterned paper) ceilings, a common feature of rolling stock of this era.  The panelling was of polished sycamore with black and gold trim, net luggage racks above the seats were fitted.

This was similar to those in  The 1905 Saloons on the Isle of Man Railway, and lighting was from a single roof-mounted oil lamp, one in each of the three large compartments as illustrated in the drawing below, these were accessed from the roof but later removed; as with other six-wheelers, use dwindled after 1905.

By 1922 the dwindling popularity of first class accommodation saw the carriage downgraded though it retained the fittings detailed above; by 1955 it had been out of use for some time and was relocated from Ramsey Station to St. John’s Station residing on Harry Cubbon’s Wing beside the carriage shed. 

Remaining there some twenty years, it was sold in 1975 and removed from the island, becoming of the Phyllis Rampton Charitable Trust collection, sometimes referred to as “Collection X”.  N.51 was also selected and removed at the same time by the same buyer with other bogie stock.

After many years in private storage the carriage was relocated to the Vale of Rheidol Railway in February of 2026 together with N.51 which is also part of the collection and remains there in storage not available for public viewing, having had minimal work carried out to it in the intervening half century.

The accompanying image shows the carriage in the original varnished teak appearance which today is carried by restored sister carriage M.N.Ry. No.6, a scheme abandoned on the basis of its considerable upkeep; all carriages later carrying the purple lake and off-white livery.