| Fleet No.: |
F.9 |
| Builders: |
Brown Marshalls & Co., Ltd |
| Original Layout: |
3 / 3 3 / 3 3 / 3 |
| Later Layout: |
3 / 3 3 / 1 / 1 / 3 (1884) |
| Third Layout: |
3 / 3 3 / 3 / 3 / 3 |
| Year Built: |
1881 |
| Capacity: |
48 |
| Length: |
35' 0" |
| Width: |
7' 0" |
| Height: |
9' 4" (Roof - Rail) |
| Status: |
In Traffic |
| Supplied in 1881 as part of a batch of five vehicles from Brown Marshalls & Co., Ltd., the configuration of this coach changed no less than four times prior to its current incarnation, as indicated above. When it re-entered traffic in 1992 the 1884 layout was reinstated and this remains today. Of all the coaches still extant and in service on the railway today, F.9 has possibly had the most varied career. She was chosen to act as a tourist information centre on the seafront at Douglas for several years having been transferred there by low loader on 17th June 1978, first being placed in what is now the car park at the front of the Sea Terminal building before being moved to a site adjacent to the Bottleneck Car Park close by the horse tram terminal as the accompanying image shows. Having initally been painted blue and yellow when in this guise, she was later repainted into red and cream which was the standard bus livery of the time. The facility ceased to exist in 1986 and the coach was moved back to the railway, being selected for complete rebuild. This was executed in-house by the railway's staff and took a number of years, being quite literally "completely" rebuilt but the vehicle returned to service in 1992 resplendant in the then-standard purple lake livery which it would have carried when built; shortly after returning to service whilst on a special charter train she de-railed in the mouth of Port Erin yard but this proved to be a one-off (leading to some speculation that she was jinxed!) and the coach has since been a regular member of the service fleet. She is the lowest-numbered coach in existance (discounting the "pairs" coaches which are actually original 1873 and 1874 bodies on younger underframes) but is ironically one of the "youngest" structurally. 2001 saw the coach reupholstered to feature modern bus moquette and this remains in situ today although a rolling scheme of reupholstery will see this removed in favour of more suitable coverings in the future. |
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Bogie Coaches 
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