Isle of Man
Isle of Man Steam Railway
August 2017
The Isle of Man Steam Railway preserves the southern section of the island’s Victorian narrow-gauge railway network. Its 3-foot (914-millimeter) line between Douglas and Port Erin opened on August 1, 1874, and remains in operation across approximately 15.5 miles (25 kilometers). Historic steam locomotives and wooden-bodied carriages continue to carry passengers, including rolling stock dating to the railway’s earliest decades.
The broader steam network developed through several companies. The first line connected Douglas and Peel in 1873. The Douglas–Port Erin route followed in 1874, the Manx Northern Railway opened between St John’s and Ramsey in 1879, and the Foxdale Railway began serving the mining village of Foxdale in 1886. The Douglas–Port Erin line is the principal surviving section of this former network.
The 2017 photographs document No. 12 Hutchinson, a steam locomotive built by Beyer, Peacock & Company in 1908. The locomotive returned to service in April 2017, placing the photographs within a specific period of its operating history.
