Isle of Man Railway rolling stock

The rolling stock used on the Isle of Man Railway today is entirely original but the serviceable passenger coaches number 14, out of an original total of 75 carriages. The railway was provided with various stock from different manufacturers over its time, and type of coach were categorised according to a numbering system, with the original four-wheeled coaches being of A, B, C and D types, and so on. The types of stock can be summarised as follows:-

Passenger stock

The "A" - "D" Class

Four-wheeled, close coupled carriages supplied for the opening of the line to Peel in 1873; these were later modified and two bodies mounted on bogie underframes supplied by the Metropolitan Carriage & Wagon Co. and became known as "the pairs" coaches. The only primary difference in appearance between the four classes were the types of ventilation above the window frames, and varying layouts internally. Each class of coach had a different internal layout. For instance, each consisted of three compartments, but one was three separate compartments, each first class, one a third "open" (being three compartments with no partition) and so on. The slight differences in style and layout became apparent when they were mounted on joint frames; see below.

The "F" Class

The "Small Fs"

There were 75 of these vehicles operating on the railway (but it is worth noting that numbers F.50-F.75 were in fact the "pairs", being bogie mounted four-wheelers as above). The initial batch were supplied by Brown Marshalls and became known as the "Small Fs" as they are noticeably smaller in size than the later vehicles.

The saloons

Later carriages of the class were supplied by the Metropolitan Carriage & Wagon Co. beginning with F.29 in 1905. This was the first of the "saloons", all of which survive today, and these are numbered F.29-F.36, the latter being the Royal Coach and extant in the railway museum at the southern terminus of Port Erin. F.35 is known as the Cardinal's Coach and has similar plush fittings internally; it was converted (together with F.31 and F.32) in the early 1980s to form the "bar set" at which time half the seating was removed and a small bar and chemical toilet fitted. Later, as F.31 was withdrawn for major bodywork attention, F.29 was fitted with a corridor and replaced the former vehicle. The saloons have remained unpopular with loco crews as they are heavy yet do not carry as many passengers as the standard compartment stock.

The Hurst Nelsons

Numbered F.37 and F.38 upon the takeover of the Manx Northern Railway in 1905, these two vehicles were unique insofar as they were built by Hurst Nelson and not originally built for the line. Externally they are not terribly different from the other "Big Fs" and they were allocated numbers of the "F" class upon take-over, being the only inherited stock to do so. Remaining stock inherited from the Manx Northern Railway was either given the "N" prefix, or, in the case of non-passenger stock, a small "r" was added to the title, as explained below. Both of these carriages were purchased off-island by a private collector in 1970 and remain out of the public gaze to this day.

The Foxdale Coach

Yet another oddity, this time originating from the Foxdale Railway is this carriage; built by the Swansea Carriage & Wagon Co. for the small branch to the village, this is a true survivor of the system and is still in operation today. Distinctive from the other stock, it too carries lookout duckets and has an extra large guard's compartment, useful today for disabled passengers. It was converted into a camping coach by Lord Aisla when he ran the line from 1967 and painted into an unattractive blue livery. However, in 1979 to mark the occasion of the centenary of the Manx Northern, the carriage was painted into M.N.R. livery and re-numbered No. 15 for a spell, before reverting to fleet livery. She now carries the standard "blood and custard" livery which was re-adopted in 1999.

The "Big Fs"

Numbered F.40 - F.49, these still provide the backbone of the service fleet today. The first five vehicles were half luggage/guard compartment and half (i.e. three compartment) passenger accommodation, as was the final one, F.49 which is the only representation of the class to remain in service today. Of the other luggage van stock, only F.44 remains but is in store, unlikely to be rebuilt in the near future. F.45 and F.46 have five passenger compartments and one guard's compartment (one coach at the Port Erin end, the other at the Douglas end) whilst the remaining two that make up the class (F.47 and F.48) have six third class passenger compartments. These vehicles are in everyday service and have rarely exited traffic since their arrival on the island. They all carry the standard red and cream livery.

The "Pairs"

See above also; these ex-four wheel coaches were mounted onto bogie underframes supplied by Metropolitan and were extensively used on Tynwald Day which traditionally saw every item of usable rolling stock in service. Latterly, they were only used on Tynwald Day, the railway's busiest day of the year, with all events taking place at St. John's which was the hub of the railway network, by this time they painted in a utilitarian all-over brown colour scheme. many remained in service into nationalisation times, carrying an all-over purple livery and the yellow stick-on "Isle of Man Railways" lettering, familiar of the early 1980s. Of note is F.75, half of which is the original "Governors' Saloon" used on opening day to carry the official party. By the 1990s all but one of these coaches had been withdrawn (F.66 being the sole survivor, withdrawn in 1999) but since this time and following a total rebuild, F.54 has re-entered service and can be seen in traffic on the railway today. These carriages have been surrounded in a certain amount of controversy in recent years, having been removed from the railway for storage, their future has been assured but it is not certain where they will be stored after 2009 and the Isle of Man Steam Railway Supporters' Association have campaigned for their retention on the railway.

"N" class carriages

The prefix for these passenger carriages is not in sequence with earlier classes, but simply "N" to denote that they were ex-Manx Northern Railway stock. Two of these survive on the line today, one was for many years the mess hut at Douglas station, the other was a resident of the Port Erin museum until it was rebuilt in 1998 when it was placed in store but not returned to the completed museum. Despite being owned privately it remains on the railway. A third is in private preservation in the north of the island together with a Beyer Peacock locomotive, No. 14 "Thornhill (Ex-Manx Northern). The fleet was once the backbone of service vehicles on the Manx Northern and they were unusual six-wheeled Cleminson-built coaches, with varying layouts internally, slightly larger than their Isle of Man Railway counterparts. After takeover in 1905, they were never used extensively apart from the usual Tynwald Day, and were stored on a siding at the back of St. John's carriage shed for many years. It was fortunate that some of the class were retained although sadly none are available for public viewing today.

Non-passenger stock

The "E" class

These were four-wheeled brake vans, entirely sealed with only two drop-sash windows at the guard's door; none of these vans survive today, and they were effectively made redundant when later passenger coaches had their own braking systems. The primary purpose of the "E" van was to provide braking for the original "A" - "D" class which did not have their own brakes when supplied in four-wheel condition. One surviving member of the class sat at the end of the Port Erin arrival platform at Douglas for many years and retained its pre-war two-tone brown livery. The possibility of the Isle of Man Steam Railway Supporters' Association recreating one of these vehicles has been mooted in the past but never reached fruition.

"Empress" vans

Two vehicles were supplied to the railway in 1897 and became known as the "Empress Vans" to acknowledge the fact that the year of delivery was Queen Victoria's jubilee year. These are the same length as the passenger vehicles but are entirely closed with no windows, but they have guard's lookout duckets attached; numbered F.27 and F.28 they are both extant on the line today but in a deplorable state and only used for storage purposes. Their busy careers have seen them in use as an ambulance train in conjunction with the T.T. and Manx Grand Prix races held annually on the island. They were stored for a number of years outdoors but despite this remain on the railway, having last been used in the early 1990s.

The "G" vans

These were a four-wheeled closed van, and again there were many of them on the line, quite often these were attached to the rear of a passenger train to transport goods to the rural communities that the railway served for many years. Upon amalgamation with the Manx Northern Railway in 1905 several more were inherited and these were distinguished by their diagonal side panels, whereas the original ones purchased by the railway company had vertical panels. Today, there remain three in existence, all of which remain on the railway, these are G.1, of the original 1873 batch, Gr.12, (the small "r" prefix denoting that it is ex-Manx Northern stock) which was extensively refurbished in the late 1990s and returned to the railway, and G.19 which saw use for many years by the permanent way crews, distinctive for being fitted with clambour boards for tree felling, and having a small wood stove installed.

The "H" wagons

These three-plank open wagons were in abundance on the railway at one time, but by the time of nationalisation they had all been scrapped; in the late 1990s the Isle of Man Steam Railway Supporters' Association took on the ambitious task of building one of these from scratch and it is now part of the line's small goods stock but features most prominently in the public eye when it masquerades as a troublesome truck for the popular Friends of Thomas event on the railway. It has been given the number H.1; one of these wagons was used (with suitable side rails attached) to carry the military band to Peel on opening day in 1873. The "H" class of wagon were part of the goods fleet of the Isle of Man Railway and consisted of a four-wheel two-plank construction; these had all be scrapped by the time the railway was nationalised in 1978 but in 1999 the Isle Of Man Steam Railway Supporters' Association took on the ambitious task of building one of these vehicles from scratch. Through a fundraising campaign this was achieved and the wagon is now part of the rolling stock of the railing and has been numbered "H.1", being the re-used number of the first vehicle of the class, long since destroyed. This was the second project undertaken by the supporters, the first being the building of a similar vehicle M.78.

The "K" vans

These were cattle carrying wagons, and were ostensibly similar to the "G" class as above but rather than being completely sealed, the top quarter of them was ventilated and featured horizontal rails where the "G" vans had only ventilated slots. None survive today but it has been mooted, for historical purposes, that a supporters' organisation may take on the reconstruction of one of these, so that the railway ultimately has and example of each type of stock in their possession.

The "M" wagons

Broadly similar to the "H" class as above, with the major noticeable difference being that these have a two-plank side, whereas the "H" class were a three-plank affair. There were an incredible 77 of these wagons on the line, and a couple survived into nationalisation days, one, M.70 being resident on the old good siding at Santon Station for many years. It was this vehicle that inspired the Isle of Man Steam Railway Supporters' Association to commence their first restoration project in the 1990s. The "new" wagon is numbered M.78 and can be seen on the line today, as above coupled to H.1 as the troublesome trucks each September for the Friends of Thomas event on the line. The "M" class of wagon numbered nearly 80 and were part of the Isle of Man Railway's stock of goods vehicles; by the time of nationalisation of the line in 1978 when the Isle of Man Government took responsibility, there were very few examples left in existence; one (numbered M.70) had been left to rot for many years and was resident in a siding at Santon station for many years. It was this vehicle that was used as a template for a project undertaken by the Isle of Man Steam Railway Supporters' Association in 1997, resulting in the presentation to the railway of M.78. This wagon is now part of the railway's historic fleet of vehicles and bears plaques denoting its origins. Together with H.1 (the next project by the group) these two wagons now form the troublesome trucks for the Friends of Thomas weekend that takes place on the railway annually.

Miscellaneous stock

Brakedown crane

Built by Gibbins, the railway's rail-mounted brakedown crane was latterly on display at Castletown Station with the remains of the frames of locomotive No.7 "Tynwald" but in 1988 it was removed to a Highway Board depot close to the old station at Crosby on the Peel line for restoration. When this was completed the crane was (perhaps puzzlingly0 put on display at Union Mills station which had not been in use since 1968 and it is there that it remains today.

Ballast hoppers

The railway's first ballast hopper was constructed in-house and built on the frames of "pairs" coach F.65 after the bodies had been removed, seeing a brief spell as waiting shelters at St. John's station the last season of the railway's full operation. It is still in existence today in this form, and indeed carries its fleet number, but has been loaned to the Manx Electric Railway and now resides at Dhoon Quarry in the special siding that was constructed for the "Steam On Electric" event in 1993 when No. 4 "Loch" operated from Laxey to the quarry sidings. Another hopper has since been constructed and is still in use on the railway.

Runners

The railway still has a number of runners and these are based on the underframes of "pairs" coaches and stored mostly on the siding outside Douglas Station known as the Peel Line Siding owing to its location where the Peel Line once spurred off to the right out of the station. In most cases they still carry their "F" denotation of fleet number either painted on, or in some cases just in chalk. How accurate these numbers are after the passage of time is questionable but they remain in use storing rail.

Fish wagons

Never having been numbered in sequence with the other rolling stock above, these small four-wheeled wagons are a relic that did not survive into the nationalisation era although some excellent photographs of them appear in the many books dedicated to the railway's history and rolling stock. Despite not carrying any form of numbering, they were labeled "Fish Wagon" along the side of their horizontal length.