The subject of the history of the Isle of Man Railway has generated much interest in print over the years, with the first "proper" acknowledged history of the line being Ian MacNab's first edition, released in 1943. This volume is now highly sought after by avid I.M.R. collectors and can reach quite high prices on internet auction sites such as e-bay and the like. Whilst this book set the ball rolling, inspection of its content today reveals that the information is sparse other than very basic information and it is known that the Railway Company weren't entirely co-operative with the author during his research.

What is now generally acknowledged as the "bible" of the railway, is of course James I.C. Boyd's definitive book, first published after many years of painstaking research in 1962. A further volume followed in 1967, the year the railway re-opened and in turn a surge of interest followed; a third "centenary" edition was published in 1973, and a fourth in 1977. The final edition was spread over three volumes covering (i) the beginnings until 1904, (ii) the 1905 amalgamation to date and (iii) the appendices, featuring detailed chapters on the many foibles of operation, locomotives, rolling stock, ticketing, signalling, etc. These three volumes were published between 1994 and 1996 at a time when the railway was receiving a further resurgence in interest thanks to 1993's "Year Of Railways" in celebration of the centenary of the Manx Electric Railway.

Aside from Mr Boyd's well respected volumes, there have of course been many other books detailing the railway's history, its stock and the like, and there continues to be a steady flow of new publications to this day. These range from a series of souvenir guide books, pocket timetables and travellers' guides, to more detailed works such as the concise history of the Manx Northern Railway by Robert Preston Hendry, an updated version of Ian MacNab's initial volume, by James Joyce released in 1968, down to a series of volumes detailing the locomotive and rolling stock index by Barry Edwards, the last version of which was printed in 1999. The details below consist of (from left to right) the original publication date, title of the book, with any subtitles, author name in brackets and publishers where known, for ease of reference these pages have been split into time periods:-