FROM MANX STEAM RAILWAY NEWS

ISSUE No. 140 - SUMMER / AUTUMN 2005

Readers of the October issue of Heritage Railway magazine will no doubt have seen the double page spread entitled “Sign Crazy!” which berates Isle of Man Transport’s current policy of erecting warning signs at its stations. The article is penned by Curtis Devereau (something fishy going on there, perhaps?!) and echoes the sentiment in our last issue claiming “Once it was hailed across the world as a timewarp taking you back to the days of Victorian railways. Now the 21^st century “nanny state” approach to public safety has made its mark on the Isle of Man Railway, with a flurry of ugly modern warning signs that have ruined its unique ambience”.

It will be apparent to anybody who has visited the railway this summer that not only have the stations been bedecked with these modern and out-of-place signs, but that the premises themselves are in poor state of repair. You have only to hark back to the days of Alan Corlett’s special events to realise that the railway is now a shadow of its former self, even from less than ten years ago. Gone are the smartly-uniformed platform staff, replaced with hi-viz coats and baseball caps, the different liveries of the locos, giving the “Thomas The Tank” feel, gone in favour of the 1944-66 Indian Red “corporate” livery. It begs the question why have a corporate identity when the railway has no competition? The locos are all well turned-out and are a credit to the footplate crews, but the children who travel today will search in vain for their favourite engine from the Rev. Awdry’s Railway Series, no Thomas, Gordon, Henry or Percy here! You may be lucky enough to catch a glimpse of Sir Topham Hatt (a.k.a. “Orange Jacket Man”, David Howard, the head of Isle of Man Transport), and there’s plenty of Bertie Buses but Thomas (or Caledonia as he/she is better known) is rarely seen, making a single appearance at the now annual Friends Of Thomas Weekend as mentioned in the Railway News section.

Happily, Mr Devereau’s article is very much in favour of the “common sense” policies applied by both the Groudle Glen and Great Laxey Mine Railways where passengers are “not just welcome, they are positively encouraged to come and ride, take pictures and enjoy the railways”. The fact that these railways are operated by volunteers who want to please the public may have something to do with that…