FROM MANX STEAM RAILWAY NEWS

ISSUE No. 50 (DIAMOND JUBLIEE ISSUE!), OCTOBER 1978

The final demolition of the buildings at Ramsey Station was completed in August, bring their ninety nine year history to an end. This follows ten years of decay following the departure of the last passenger train in September 1968. The last train of any description left in 1969 and the rails and loose scrap were removed in 1975.

The four main buildings which have now disappeared were all built in 1879 but at least two were subsequently extended a few years later. The first to go was the engine shed and fitting shed block which was built of slate slab walls with a slate roof. The fitting sop retained, alongside the blacksmiths’ hearth, its large old-fashioned set of wooden bellows until the were removed with the loose scrap in 1975. That they were a long time is obvious as they are branded all over with the initials M.N.R.

The station itself revealed itself on demolition to have been superbly built with massive slate and slab walls, heavy floors and a boarded, felted and slated roof, the slates secured with copper nails. The building also revealed on demolition that it was extended in the direction of the town at some stage as an internal wall facing that way and once presumably external, revealed in large letters - Refreshment Room !

The goods shed followed this to the ground after the internal timbers had been removed. This building had slate slab walls again, (except for a small section at the Sulby end) with a corrugated iron roof. Revealed here by the demolition were the old winches once used on the first floor (and built in there) for hoisting goods out of wagons for storage up there.

Lastly, after a pause caused by the re-housing of its tenats [sic], the carriage shed was stripped of its corrugated iron sheeting, revealing its timber frame to be in good condition. This has now been carefully dismantled apparently for re-use. Now the site is bare awaiting its redevelopment as an industrial site.

Julian Edwards