FROM MANX STEAM RAILWAY NEWS

WRITTEN BY MICHAEL DAVIES

FROM ISSUE No. 124 - SUMMER 1999

I read with much interest John Longley's article on Peel Road and the I.M.R. in 1943 published in issue No. 118.  I have been travelling the island lines now for over 60 years, having been brought over as a very young child by my parents and grandparents in 1937.  Rustic branch lines and obscure stations have always fascinated me, and so from 1954 when I paid my first adult visit to the island, I have tried to make use of all the stations on the I.M.R.  On that visit I much enjoyed the M.N.R., always my favourite section, with its wonderfull cliff top run from St. Germain's to Kirk Michael.  We had stayed on a farm at 'Michael in 1937.  St. Germain's Station was still open in 1954 and I well remember my surprise when we crossed the last Ramsey-bound train as I was returning to St. John's and Peel.  The loop was very grass grown!  Alas this was to be the only time I saw the loop and station in use, although it would have been very useful to me on my many walks in the area when based in Peel where I always stayed in those days.

On my many visits from 1954 to 1965 I tried to use as many stations as possible, but Peel Road, Bishopscourt and Lezayre had already vanished from the time-table, as had Quarter Bridge, Ballabeg, Level and the Foxdale Branch.  Requests to station-masters or train crews were useless.  "HE" (A.M. Sheard) wouldn't approve - and that was that!  After the very sad year of 1966 when no trains ran and all seemed lost we celebrated the re-opening of the Peel Line on 3rd June 1967 under the Marquis of Ailsa and his manager, Sir Phillip Wombwell.  The following day I was on the first train to Ramsey since September 1965 and I paid no less than six visits to the island that summer.  Attitudes changed completely and one was actually made welcome in the workshops and loco shed, instead of being frog-marched back to the platform as heretofore!

The high summer time-table of 1967 (11th July - 10th September) showed a train from Ramsey at 16.14, due St. John's 17.04 but usually there was no connection to Peel off this train.  As we were staying in Peel this was inconvenient, but on explaining the situation to the guard he readily agreed to stop at Peel Road and so I achieved my aim of using another I.M.R. station.  We also used St. Germain's several times that summer, although on one memorable occasion a Ramsey-bound train failed to stop in the station and we had to run after is some 200 yards!

Only Lezayre finally eluded me, and even here I have a photograph of two local passengers joining a Ramsey train on which I was travelling in 1967.  May very last trip on the Manx Northern was on an August day in 1968 when sadly trains only ran three days a week - Monday, Wednesday and Friday.  The steamer from Liverpool was a little late and despite a taxi we just missed the M.E.R. at Derby Castle.  The taxi sped on to the Halfway House but the car was already gone and we finally managed to catch it at Baldrine.  Somehow the departure time of the train from Ramsey was misunderstood, for we were most amazed to hear a steam engine whistle no sooner had we alighted the M.E.R. at Ramsey Plaza.  Sure enough the train was gone and once more we had to seek a taxi!  Somehow we managed to persuade a local garage to pursue the train immediately but northern line trains always seemed to run fast along those level stretches beyong Sulby and it was not until we reached Ballavolley Halt that we caught her up.  Frantic waves and sounding the taxi's horn enabled us to board, and we were soon away with the guard issuing us excess fare tickets.

A lasting memory is of travelling in the rear carriage, a saloon with end windows, and watching the oil-tank wagons snaking along at the tail of the train.  I have visited the island nearly every year since 1968 and our children have enjoyed countless rides on the southern line, but I still have a very soft spot for the northern which, sadly, the children never knew.

Michael Davies