COMMUTING - ISLE OF MAN STYLE!

Planning for the T.T. commuter trains started at the beginning of May. The commuter trains were planned very late and the first task was how to store stock at Port Erin carriage shed. There was a need for five coaches on the first day of the commuter service; this was later reduced to normally three coaches but did run on one day with only one saloon. The carriage shed at Port Erin holds ten coaches; four unserviceable coaches are normally stored there as well as the service train and one spare coach. Three of the unserviceable coaches were boarded up with plywood across the doors and windows and the coaches removed to Port St. Mary with the Simplex which is based at Port Erin during the summer, where they were stored in the re-laid goods siding for the duration.

This T.T. fortnight highlighted the fact that coaching stock is at a premium and all routine maintenance was done before the fortnight began. This included the changing of brake blocks, oiling of the axle boxes so that the coaches could operate for the two weeks without any problems. Only the checking of brake gear and adjusting of brakes needed to be done during the fortnight itself. F. 26 was brought out of the paint shop incomplete (with only one side painted and coats of varnish applied) to the cope with the demand. Prior to the commuter service operating, there was a Bank Holiday; working the stock for the commuter train was not an easy task due to heavy passenger loadings on the Bank Holiday. It soon transpired that the commuter train was able to operate with three coaches about 20-25 passengers being the average loading.  This proved to be helpful as the 10.15am from Port Erin started to get very busy during this period and needed five coaches. The commuter stock was used for spare coaches during the day subject to demand; the coaches for the commuter service had to be taken from the 4.15pm ex-Port Erin train when it arrived in Douglas. The commuter engine and crew booked on at 6.00am and were supposed to take the 4.15pm service train back to Port Erin and finish at 5.45pm. This did not always happen due to staff problems or the crew being used as a banking engine crew.

This meant an 6.45pm sign-off which was a long day bearing in mind that staff work a system of only one day off in any fourteen days.  The Thursday of race week was very busy, there being no racing and a surfeit of bikers with nothing to do! This saw the line operating with the number of passengers it did in its heyday as the accompanying photograph indicates. All serviceable coaches were used and both 10.15am and 2.15pm ex-Douglas were banked by No. 13 which was used as commuter engine. The 4.15pm ex-Port Erin having eleven coaches full. No. 8 was steamed and prepared at Douglas ready for the commuter train; the train had been marshalled in such a way as that the last two coaches could be uncoupled and create the commuter train, harking back to the days when the Peel and Ramsey sections were similarly marshalled at Douglas for splitting at St. John’s. The banking engine crew ran No. 13 off the train and put No. 8 on the two commuter carriages and left Douglas as the commuter train crew.

This system was only needed because the timetable was so tight that it did not allow coal or water to be taken at Douglas without making the commuter service late (the commuter service was only given three minutes to depart after the arrival of the 4.15pm ex-Port Erin).  The fortnight was extremely rewarding as all went according to plan and the railway showed that it can still carry large numbers of people efficiently but the way it was worked could not be sustained for any lengthy period of time. No. 12 only just limped through the fortnight owing to a hot pony truck box. No. 10 was failed in practice week, No. 11 is out of service, No. 15 is not suitable for the tight timetable and is in need of running gear overhaul. The staff numbers and coaches still in service made it a “skin-of-your-teeth” operation and things started failing after this hectic period had finished.

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