FROM MANX STEAM RAILWAY NEWS

ISSUE No. 140 - SUMMER / AUTUMN 2005

We have received the following article from Bryant Hill which he advises us has been lying around for a number of years but I’m sure will be of interest to our members.

A lot of interest in the Isle of Man Railway stems from the publishing of James I.C. Boyd’s book of the same name by the Oakwood Publishing Company, in 1962. Before this date the only book, and not readily available, was Ian McNabb’s book again of the same name, and one of two articles, appearing from time to time in the various railway publications. Very little was written about the Narrow Gauge. It may be that it is not that well known, that Mr. Boyd was not going to be the author of this work.

Anyone reading Mr. Boyd’s books around this time, the middle to late 1950s which in the main were about the Welsh narrow gauge lines, will without a doubt, remember the excellent maps and drawings in all of Mr. Boyd’s books by Mr. John M Lloyd. These also appeared in the Manx books until his sad death at the time of the three-volume edition of Mr. Boyd’s book when a relation took over the work. It was Mr. Lloyd who was to write the Isle of Man Railway book published by Oakwood. Mr. Lloyd was a master at Manchester Cholrton Grammar School a couple of miles from his home in Stretford, Lancashire. A very good friend of Mr. Boyd and a well-known railway enthusiast in the Manchester area. He was always happy to talk railways.

Towards the end of the 1950s I had just given up running the Ian Allan loco spotters’ club covering the northwest region and met Mr. Lloyd some time before through one of his pupils. At the Manchester model railway club held each Christmas, I had a stand in the name of the Lancashire & Cheshire Railway Club. The small stand always had photographs, posters, tickets, etc., from the Isle of Man railway together with a current timetable supplied to me by the manager Mr. Sheard. He always visited me for a chat and on occasions did Mr. Boyd. At the 1958 show Mr. Lloyd told me he was to write a book about the Isle of Man Railway as soon as he had finished helping Mr. Boyd with Volume II of the Ffestiniog Railway. I at once offered my maps, photographs, timetables etc., and my press cuttings. I still have the letter from him on receipt of these items; it reads:-

Stretford, 7^th February 1959

Dear Mr. Hill, my apologies for not having acknowledged your kindness in sending me the I.M.R. cuttings before this. The heat has been on for “Ffestiniog Vol. II” and I have been chased by both Mr. Boyd and the publisher for the last one of two drawings and the last minute modifications to those already done - all of which adds up to a most hectic time. I have now delivered the last roll and can sit back and wait for my copy to come tumbling through the letterbox and get on more vigorously with the “Isle of Man”. Your cuttings were very welcome and I will keep them by me with reference to the present. In due course I will return them and then, perhaps I may be able to give you some idea of the publishing day. At the moment it has been advertised as “in preparation” and given the number 57 in the Oakwood Library of railway history.

Some time later in the year I had another letter from Mr. Lloyd (this letter was mislaid some years ago) advising that he had withdrawn from the book and had passed all his work together with my cuttings to Mr. Boyd who was to produce a much larger book than he had planned with Oakwood, this of course was the book published in 1962. he would keep me up to date with any information which of course he did, I getting my copy as soon as it was published. I regret to say I never received my cuttings back having changed my address and place of employment. I often wonder if history would have been different if the book had been written by Mr. Lloyd who went on to write other books on local history before he died.