Douglas to peel: station-by-station

On Tuesday, 1 July 1873 the banner reads ‘Douglas & Peel United’ as IMR No 1 Sutherland awaits departure from Douglas for Peel with the inaugural public train on the Isle of Man – there are also flowers decorating the engine, and mottoes such as ‘Success to the IOMR’ and ‘Progress’. It was a huge event, with 400 people invited, leading to a need for two special trains, that seen here departing at 11.40am. At this stage the brand new locomotive has no rear cab-sheet and the passenger stock is a dozen four-wheeled carriages (different colours denote the classes), while the additional open wagon mid-way along the rake would carry the band of the Royal Bengal Fusiliers. Marshalled next to the Ducal saloon, the band struck up The British Grenadier upon departure, and played again each time there was a station stop. The busby adorned military presence is clear to see as crowds gather. Also of note is the timber-built main station building beyond the buffer stops which would serve until 1891. The pictured train reached Peel at 12.25pm, by which time the second train, of 11 coaches, would already be 15 minutes out of Douglas. Jane Kennedy Collection

Isle of Man Railways is an exception to the rule in regard to a nationalised railway system as it operates a network of heritage lines and has for the most part strayed little in terms of modernising these: they include the Manx Electric Railway, Snaefell Mountain Railway and the Douglas-Port Erin line of the erstwhile Isle of Man Railway, 3ft being the standard Manx gauge but with the Snaefell line at 3ft 6in. The steam railway operation was nationalised in 1978, by then redundant lines – that between Douglas and Peel, and the routes from St John’s to Ramsey, and to Foxdale – had long since closed, with their removal as scrap beginning in August 1974 and thus consigning them to history.

The Peel and Port Erin lines date from 1873 and 1874 respectively and were opened by the Isle of Man Railway,. The Ramsey line was opened by the Manx Northern Railway in 1879 and the Foxdale Railway dated from 1886, and 1905 saw both of these concerns taken over by the IMR. The Foxdale route was all but moribund after limited use in World War II, and as for the others, a review of IMR finances in late 1965 led to there being no public services in 1966 and until 3 June 1967 when the Marquis of Ailsa leased and operated t