Purchased as two four-wheel carriages in 1873 from the Metropolitan Carriage & Wagon Co., Ltd., of Saltley Works in Birmingham and later allocated fleet numbers B.20 and B.16, by 1880 these two carriages had become close coupled and were later mounted on a new steel underframe, again supplied by the Metropolitan Carriage & Wagon Co., Ltd., in 1919 to become F.57.  

The carriage in this form survived in service and was the subject of an aborted rebuild attempt in 1983 after it was partially set on fire while on a service train at Santon Station by a stray cigarette end; ultimately the rebuild was abandoned and the carriage stored in the yard at Douglas Station.  its last use was as part of an emergency services exercise in the Nunnery Cutting in March of 1995 (as pictured below) after which it was scrapped, although the underframe survives today as a bogie runner in storage at Douglas Station.

It was at this point the decision was made to scrap the runner whilst retaining all reusable parts in storage. This is one of few items of rolling stock for which there is a poor photographic record, if you have access to any images that you would be happy for us to use on this side to complete the page please get in touch with the website administrator who would be delighted to hear from you.  The accompanying drawings on this page are of similar carriages for illustrative purposes only