ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED - ISSUE No. 65, WINTER ISSUE 1983

If you are planning a break in the Isle of Man this winter, try to include a Tuesday and a Friday in your visit for reasons which will become obvious from the account which follows.

My first sight of a railway this October, was tram No. 21 standing forlornly in Ramsey Electric Railway stationon Tuesday 26^th October. The bodywork painted caramel and cream, one of the historic liveries, looked the worse for wear. The tram left Ramsey Station promptly at 9.45am and I booked a £1.10 return to Douglas. This was queried by Stan the conductor until he remembered it was a Tuesday! Since the 4^th October, an extra car has operated on Tuesday only, departing Douglas at 10.00am and returning from Laxey at 10.35am. This has enabled Ramsey folk to travel to Douglas and back by tram once a week, without staying the night! However, I was the only passenger to use the facility on that day.

No. 21 shook and rattled its way up to Ballaglass Glen where a brief stop was made to deposit a gas cylinder in the shelter. Shortly afterwards, we reversed onto the “wrong line” at Ballagorry crossover near Dhoon School. This was a complicated operation involving two turns of the trolley and the motorman Dennis walking the length of the car twice. No. 21 proceeded a little more cautiously and the only other passenger alighted at Looney’s Crossing, just south of Glen Mona. Near Ballig we passed the reason for our diversion, a platelayers’ trolley on the seaward line, although no platelayers were to be seen. We resumed our normal running line at Dhoon Quarry and this was accomplished without stopping as Stan adeptly swung the trolley from one wire to the other.

At Laxey there was a Snaefell car parked outside its shed on the hillside and No. 19 had already arrived from Douglas. To my surprise the cars and crews did not work through and 11 passengers transferred to the northbound car, although one was to remain the only passenger on No. 19 for the rest of the journey to Douglas. This wind and the damp-cold outside weren’t in evidence, because the winter saloons have very efficient under-seat electric fires. No. 19 has a much smoother ride than No. 21 and it is actually possible to do The Times crossword in-between contemplating the darkwood panelling on the ceiling which is a great improvement on the faded cream paint on No. 21.

Near Eskadale, we passed a tractor with a hedge-cutting arm on the landward line and a little later, car No. 7 with two open wagons which were being loaded with many hundredweights of shrubbery blocking the landside line. At Howstrake Camp, the landside line had been completely removed and some small-scale ballast had been rolled into a smooth pathway. Car No. 6 was in attendance at this site. I have always thought it a great pity that the newly overhauled saloon cars like No. 6 have to be used on P.W. duty. Could not some of the disused ratchets be rebuilt as P.W. cars? The blinds could be removed and half the car made into an enclosed mess and the other half a store and workshop.

We arrived promptly at Douglas and saw a crowd of passengers sheltering in saloon trailer No. 58. They were on an Island Magic holiday excursion and had been deposited there by a special Leyland National bus; the tram crew decided there was no call for No. 58 and the passengers transferred to No. 19 for the 11.20am departure to Laxey. Another Leyland National bus materialised for the connecting service to the town centre. Can anyone tell me why there are no bus timetables in either of the bus shelters outside the National Transport offices at Derby Castle?

After nearly two hours stay in Douglas, it was time to catch the 1.10pm bus to the tram station which materialised as a Tyne & Wear Atlantean. We followed the Ramsey bus out of the bus station which this day was Leyland PD3 No. 74 with a rear open platform. Is there anywhere else in the British Isles, apart from London, where you can have a 19-mile ride on such an antique design of bus? Please note the front-engined two-man buses see most of their work on school days only.

The operation of the M.E.R. never ceases to cause amazement. No. 21 had arrived from Ramsey at about 1.10pm and shunted into the car shed. The crew transferred to car No. 19 which was parked in the goods siding at Derby Castle. If the two cars were intended to be swapped over, why hadn’t they run through Laxey earlier in the day? At 1.25pm toastrack No. 27 arrived from the depot towing a van. It ran round the van and waited for us to leave. I was the only passenger on the Douglas to Laxey leg of the 1.30pm departure. Incidentally, this is the first and last through car of the day to Ramsey. However I shared the saloon with some new tyres and miscellaneous parcels which went all the way to Ramsey. More wrong-line working was experienced owing to the re-lay at Howstrake. The car was scraped several times by overgrown vegetation in the Baldrine area and there was also evidence of weed-covered track in the same district.

The rest of the journey was uneventful apart from a near altercation with a wild dog near Friary Cottage [sic]. I was joined by the 25 Sealink tour passengers at Laxey and the car soon filled with the fumes on onion sandwiches which they had consumed in the Mines Tavern.b There were three or four stops nearer to Ramsey where shoppers were picked up and the conductor had at last to use his Setright ticket machine.

On Friday 29^th October, I motored from Ramsey to Ballasalla to catch the steam train to Douglas. Like last winter, the M.E.R. Board has decided to operate a Fridays only shoppers train except on December 24^th, 31^st and April 1^st. At 10.40am about 10 minutes late, No. 12 bunker first and F.43, F.46 and F.47 rumbled into view. Peter Collister [sic], the guard, took my 70p ticket for the single to Douglas and issued a Manx Electric Railway ticket from a Setright machine. The journey was enlivened as Peter propelled the weekly pay packets to the various lineside employees through the open window of the guard’s compartment.

Ballasalla station was busy for a few minues as 6 passengers waited for the train. Why is there no winter timetable displayed at this station? A poster might encourage a few more passengers. Like the trams, the coaches were warm, because the steam heating was working on all three coaches. However the ride was rather rough over the badly jointed track in certain places. No more passengers were picked up after Ballasalla and all 57 passengers rode through to Douglas. The approach to Douglas Station is the least attractive approach to any terminal I know. The old Peel Line has been covered with spoil or taken over by lineside factories. The track outside the old carriage shed is buckled and looks unusable. There is also a dump of old double-decker buses in this area. All the serviceable coaches are now parked in the station on the remaining sidings so the paintwork and woodwork is decaying rapidly in the winter weather.

I had time in Douglas to kill so I took the 12.10pm bus with half-a-dozen or so women shoppers and alighted at Laxey just in time to catch the 12.40pm tram back to Douglas! Again I was the only passenger. The re-lay at Howstrake had made progress since Tuesday and the new rail and sleepers were in position and several sections had been joined together.

When I returned to Douglas Station just before 2.00pm No. 12 was letting off steam. We set off a few minutes late because some of the regular passengers had arrived late. The train easily galloped up the bank with its load of 57 passengers and three coaches. The journey was non-stop to Ballasalla where some of the passengers alighted. More got out at Castletown; Ballabeg was by-passed, but a solitary lady was a load of shopping alighted at Colby where the rain caused Hutchinson some wheel-slip. Port St. Mary was a popular halt and the remainder of us stayed on to Port Erin. The coaches were left at the main platform, presumably for the next Friday working.

The railway staff were very helpful in opening up the museum to a small group of visitors (it is normally closed in winter). I returned to Ballasalla by bus. The most convenient one was the 3.38pm route 8 to Peel, which is the only journey each day along the Shore Road. Once again, I was the only passenger until the bus swept into the playground of Castle Rushen High School, where several dozen children boarded the single-decker Leyland Leopard No. 10. At Ronaldsway Airport, the bus did a 360 degree turn in order to stop outside the main door, but there was no trade. A good view was obtained of one of the new Manx Airlines Friendships G-OMAN which did not start operation until the following Monday (November 1^st).

Incidentally, Tuesdays and Fridays also sees a bus service which covers a circular route in the beautiful Baldwin Valley, north-west of Douglas. Another service runs from Ramsey to the picturesque village of Maughold again by a circular route on Fridays only. Those who wish to travel to the island in winter may find it cheaper to make their own travel arrangements than use the Haven Holiday or Sealink Magic Holiday schemes. Anyway, it is more exciting to use the ordinary public transport services instead of the special tours.

Mike Hams