N.40 : M.N.Ry. No.1

Purchased for the opening of the Manx Northern Railway on 23rd September 1879 from the Swansea Carriage & Wagon Co. This example was unique among the set of fourteen, this had First Class accommodation across three separate compartments, with a 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 seats upholstered to waist height were featured, with Lincrusta (embossed patterned paper) ceiling, a common feature of rolling stock; the panelling was of polished sycamore with black and gold trim, net luggage racks above the seats were fitted, similar to those in the later 1905 saloons, and lighting was from a single roof-mounted oil lamp, one in each of the three compartments.  By 1922 the dwindling popularity of first class saw the carriage downgraded though it retained the fittings detailed above; it was sold in 1975 and is now part of the Phyllis Rampton Charitable Trust collection, sometimes referred to as “Collection X”.  The accompanying image shows the carriage in the purple lake livery with off-white upper panels, a colour scheme it carried after the varnished teak appearance was abandoned on the basis of its considerable upkeep; all carriages were so treated.

M.N.Ry. No.:

I.M.R. No.:

Width:

Length:

Wheel Dia.:

Wheelbases:

No.1

N.40

6’ 9”

30’ 0”

2’ 3”

24’ 0”

Stored in the yard at St. Johns Station after withdrawal with other members of the series, seen here in April 1955 by Peter Kenyon.

St. John’s Station in 1967 with some of the teak panelling missing and the windows unglazed suffering from the elements.

Sister No.2 (N.41) was of similar design and remains on the railway as a grounded store, seen here being repainted.