The other night I watched a video of the movie, “Owd Bob”, about families and their sheep-herding dogs on the Isle of Man. Near the beginning is a short series of scenes showing car #22 of the Manx Electric Railway making its way through some beautiful scenery. I wasn’t aware of that system, but a check on Google brings up a wealth of information. Looks like it has an impressive history and some real treasures in the equipment.

I visited the Isle of Man in 1992 with my Grandad. The whole island seemed to be a place time forgot.

Manx Electric Railway
Groudle Glen Railway
The horse railway
Snaeffel Mountain Railway (don't know if spelled that right....)
And the steam railwy.

Great place!

Joshua


joshua@joshuakblay.com

> The other night I watched a video of the
> movie, “Owd Bob”, about families and their
> sheep-herding dogs on the Isle of Man. Near
> the beginning is a short series of scenes
> showing car #22 of the Manx Electric Railway
> making its way through some beautiful
> scenery. I wasnÂ’t aware of that system, but
> a check on Google brings up a wealth of
> information. Looks like it has an impressive
> history and some real treasures in the
> equipment.

Any railfan visiting the British Isles should seriously consider the Isle of Man. As far as I know, no other place in the world has a local transport guide that lists steam trains, electric cars (two gauges) horse trams, and modern diesel buses. I don't know how often they do this, but by prior arrangement, they have offered motorman lessons on the Laxey-Ramsey section of the interurban line. I drove an interurban that dated back to the 19th Century, and had to sound the whistle to chase sheep off the track. Sheep are often seen on the Snaefell Mtn. Railway, which is 42" gauge and climbs to the top of the mountain over some of the steepest electric adhesion working you're likely to see outside of the Alps. The cars date back to 1895, and until about 20 years ago still had their 1895 motors. The steam railway goes to the south end of the island, and features "token working" with the crewmen handing off a heavy metal device to gain rights over a section of track. On special occasions the steam folks will truck one of their tank engines over to the electric line to haul a couple of trailer cars, and the "juice" men have sent an interurban to "Steamland" where it's powered by a generator on a small flatcar.
Some of my colleagues are horsemen, so I show them photos of the Douglas horse-power trams. The hayburners seem to know when there's a photographer nearby and "come to attention" before the shutter clicks. They also look over their shoulders for traffic where the tramway changes lanes along the seaside. There's even a retirement farm where tramway horses are literally put out to pasture--no one-way trip to the dog-food plant. Even San Francisco-style cable cars are represented, although the last one ran in Douglas in 1929, one of the cable trams has been restored.


brunettedavis@aol.com

You can take the Isle of Man Steam Packet (ferry) from several points in the UK as well is Ireland. I think you can buy a pass to ride all of the different modes of rail transport on IoM. I took an overnight ferry from Liverpool and spent the entire day riding every line, spent the night at the Casino/Hotel then back to Liverpool by daylight ferry the next day. Douglas is a classic Victorian beachfront resort town.

While riding the recent TUT steam charter on the White Pass, I sat next to a very nice couple from the Isle of Man. The Isle of Man has fascinated me because of its unusual political status, it is "ruled" by Queen of England but is not part of the United Kingdom (I think Guernsey and Jersey fall into the same category). The couple was a bit of a roving railfan tourist office, and gave me some brochures. As noted above, some very interesting trains. The reason for this post is to provide a tourist info internet link from the brochure. From the home page under "activites and interests" there is a link to trains that provides all kind of info.

Isle of Man Tourist Info
jbwest@att.net