Steam on the Isle of Man The Train Now Departing

BBC Four Collections -

archive programmes chosen by experts.

For this Collection, Gary Boyd-Hope

has selected programmes celebrating Britain's steam railway legacy.

More programmes on this theme

and other BBC Four Collections

are available on BBC iPlayer.

VIOLIN PLAYS FOLK-STYLE TUNE

The Isle of Man is a bit of an oddity.

It's set squarely in the middle of the British Isles

and yet forms no part of Great Britain.

It isn't even part of the United Kingdom,

and yet our monarch is also the Lord of Mann.

You can trundle along the Douglas promenade in a horse-drawn tram

and you can arrive on the Isle of Man

on board one of the most modern of jets.

You can come there because you like its taxation system

and lack of death duties, or you can come as a tourist

to get rid of a little of your money.

There's one more oddity - it has still got steam.

But whether you're there for the offshore finance,

or the blend of old and new,

or because it's a change from Blackpool and Morecambe

and has the romance of being an island

with everybody in the old days, such as the Vikings,

having to come by boat,

it's now famous for some because of its railways.

It isn't a very big island, being only some 30 miles long.

But the railways have played an important part

in its history and commerce, and now nostalgia and tourism.

You might have thought that such an island, with its independence

and unique government and craggy scenery,

would have wanted nothing to do with such things as trains.

But not a bit of it.

The steam railways crossed the island, high ground permitting,

but then vanished - first from Ramsey and then from Peel.

However, there is still Douglas to Port Erin.

As with almost everywhere,

the roads have taken the load the railways used to bear.

And the railway buildings might seem no more than a front,

like ancient castles telling of former times, of the days of steam.

But behind them, there is still steam

blowing its trumpet in a manner it alone can do.

It's one of the most unique transport systems in the British Isles,

if not the whole of Europe.

Not only have you got a modern bus service,

which you've got everywhere, of course, but you've got this unique

vintage railway system, which dates back until the 1870s,

in certain cases. The Electric Railway, the Steam Railway,

the Snaefell Mountain Railway.

Marvellous systems, all completely different,

all with their own type of image, their own atmosphere,

and it's that type of thing which really is a boyhood dream,

I suppose, to be in charge of running such an enterprise.

NARRATOR: Well, firstly, is it a tramway, is it a railway?

But it's certainly the Isle of Man.

And the Isle of Man was very much ahead of the times,

for the Douglas & Laxey Coast Electric Tramway started in 1893.

London didn't get its first electric trams

until this century, in 1901, and Birmingham, 1903,

or ten years after the Manx Company had shown the way,

and so excitingly.

The island is not short of contours and the construction of its tramway

was a challenge that appealed to the supremely confident Victorians,

who seemed to prefer the problems caused by all that mountain scenery.

But they didn't only push their trams into the glens,

they did the same with steam.

And this steam, having fallen into disrepair,

was then lovingly restored by, among others, Tony Beard.

Years ago, we were volunteers working on the Steam Railway.

When it was nationalised, we found that we were no longer required.

So we still wanted to do something in railway preservation

and so we decided to restore this Manx Glen Railway.

NARRATOR: I suppose one disadvantage of train sets

is that they aren't big enough.

They're not quite the real thing.

But this certainly is and has been, off and on, since 1893.

Built originally in Stafford

and then restored by apprentices at Sellafield,

Sea Lion is now 95 years old and will plainly hit a century, or maybe two.

They don't work her too hard, but it's usual to get her in steam

on summer Sunday mornings to pull another load of tourists.

And that, strangely,

is what this particular railway was always designed to do.

There was never any more serious business

than taking a bunch of tourists along a length of line

and then bringing them back again.

So it's now business as usual along Groudle Glen,

thanks to the Isle of Man Steam Railway Supporters' Association.

The railway was closed for World War II,

closed again in 1960 and then reopened for passengers in 1985.

Everyone who works here is a volunteer.

Ron Cooper, ticket seller, usually works in an office.

Colin Kelly, guard, works in a brewery.

And the driver of the train, Kevin Lewin, is a storeman.

MAN: This is a marvellous example of some Victorian engineer who decided

to develop a glen and build a 2ft gauge narrow-gauge railway

three quarters of a mile long to serve a zoo

where there were sea lions and polar bears -

hence the name of the two locomotives that served the line for many years.

It's supposed to be a hobby, but it's nearly turning out to be

a full-time job, but it's very, very enjoyable.

Every minute I spend down here is totally enjoyable.

I speak for everybody who comes down.

The total commitment, and it's good fun.

And to see people's faces, travelling on the trains,

and you see them enjoying themselves as a result of your efforts,

makes it worthwhile. That's what I like about it.

BRASS BAND MUSIC

NARRATOR: Journey's end, with lots of bracing sea air.

You can tell it's an English summer,

because so many are wearing anoraks.

In the old days, there was more to this headland station

than just a headland.

The engine had been called Sea Lion

because it used to call at the sea lions.

And down there, at the end of the last century, someone had built

a zoo with sea lions and polar bears.

And bits of the old cages still remain.

Today, you just have to look, take deep breaths of air

and imagine what it must have been like

when you could stroll across the bridge

and look down and across at the animals.

It isn't typical polar bear country,

but perhaps a touch nearer than Regent's Park.

Anyway, the place attracted 100,000 visitors in its first three months

and they had to run 40 trains a day.

It was one of the sights to be seen before it was time for everyone

to be back on the coaches and then back down the glen.

But there's still, as it were,

a proper railway that's a touch more inter-city than just going to a zoo.

The Isle of Man Railway still exists, with Douglas being the major station,

and they are still in steam.

We are a full-time employer.

The railway doesn't run with volunteer labour.

So all our staff are very flexible.

The majority of them can do at least two jobs

and a lot of them three or four jobs.

So the trains that are running now,

with the drivers and firemen and guards, in the winter,

they are switched on to the maintenance of track and vehicles

and the full-time engineering staff also turn out in the summer

to work extra duties on the traffic.

And between the lot of them, we keep the whole job going.

The staff are excellent on the Isle of Man railways.

We have a very flexible staff.

They go from making springs for the locomotives, painting,

doing traffic work, being a guard, a station master, a ticket collector.

All sorts of things...each person is expected to do and they do it well.

You see, they've got a vocation. That's important.

They care about the railway.

Without them, we wouldn't have an Isle of Man Steam Railway.

NARRATOR: The Isle of Man Railway, built on a 3ft gauge,

started work in 1873.

And the first steam engine was number one.

But number 13 is no chicken, having entered service in 1910.

Not only still going strong, but also, it would appear,

shining no less brightly after the passage of almost eight decades.

Of course, the line was busier in the old days.

But with some of those engines still working,

there's a great feeling of continuity between then and now.

But with one difference -

that the platforms still had their canopies in the old days.

The surviving length of track runs from Douglas to Port Erin,

about a dozen miles as the crow might make the journey,

but nearer 20 by steam.

So steam lives, but only goes to Port Erin in the summertime,

when there are more visitors to use and see this whiff of the past.

Steam trains have now been running on this line for 114 years.

First to Port Soderick, then Santon and Ballasalla

and Castletown and Ballabeg and Colby and Port St Mary.

And finally, to Port Erin,

which, under a clear blue sky, can look most magical.

The connection between Port Erin and Douglas has had its hiccups,

notably in the 1960s, when lines were being closed with such enthusiasm.

But the old signs were not taken down and are now useful all over again.

- Can you run to the end? - Yes.

The first memory must've been looking out of the window

of the Martins Bank House, where we used to live,

eagerly awaiting the arrival of whatever train was on its way in.

Wondering whether it was my father or grandfather who would be driving.

NARRATOR: Mike Buttel's father, on the left,

and Grandfather Buttel on the right.

In fact, the grandfather retired three times and was called back twice

because they couldn't replace him.

But it was Mike's father, mainly, who gave him a love of steam

and who helped to make this a fourth-generation railway family -

one just as long-lasting as the trains they served.

The smell of the railway was with us over in Bank House all the time.

With living more or less on top of the railway, we used to get

the smell of the steam drifting into the house.

There was always the smell on my father's overalls

lying around the place.

The station building itself

is undoubtedly the most beautiful building in Port Erin.

It's a red-brick construction.

It was built by a local firm of builders

in the early years of the century. It's all done on a theme.

The decoration over the station windows

and doors is also in the bargeboards on the top of the roof.

There's this carved arch

that's reflected throughout the whole building.

NARRATOR: I think only a true fanatic would say that

Port Erin's railway station

is the most beautiful building in town,

but you need that kind of enthusiasm if the virtues of the past

are not to be swept aside in pursuit of modernity.

MIKE BUTTEL: Inside, in the booking office,

what we're trying to do is recreate

the feel of the place as it must have looked between 1910 and, say, 1920.

You can see we have got a lot of the original posters

we've rescued from various stations along the line.

NARRATOR: And that means everything is a touch old-fashioned,

like the tickets and politeness.

- No, these are return tickets. - Oh, fine. Thank you.

Thank you.

- To Douglas? - Yes.

Right.

Could you have your tickets ready, please?

Thank you.

Thank you.

'The satisfaction really comes from the whole job,

'from seeing the loco coming out in the morning, nice and clean,

'and the passengers rolling up with their tickets

'and the smiles on their faces as they go off for their day out.

'Then seeing another train full of people coming back in.

'It's having to deal with the people, having to deal with the crews

'and any problems that may come up during the day.

'It is a very satisfying experience

'and it's one that I take a great amount of pride in.'

Thank you.

OK, thank you.

TRAIN HOOTS

All the little engines have their own little personalities.

I look forward to seeing them come again, the different make-up

of the trains, the rolling stock,

whatever order it's in on that particular day.

There's always something interesting to find going on.

NARRATOR: A commuter in, for example, Southern England might wonder

if this is modern times at all

and when he last had a door opened for him.

Occasionally, my mother, I suppose, wanted to get rid of me for the day.

I'd be bundled off with my father

and taken off to Douglas on the engine.

Of course, we'd never start off in the engine at Port Erin.

Mr Nelson wouldn't have approved of that sort of thing.

But as soon as we got into Port St Mary,

you'd get out of the guard's van on the blind side of Mr Corkish,

who was the station master there,

and climb into the loco cab and set off towards Douglas.

It was always a marvellous feeling to be in the footplate with them.

One of the things I can remember is that they used to keep their tea

in enamel pots with wire handles, hanging from the lamp brackets

on the back plate of the boiler,

and keep the tea hot for the journey into Douglas.

And we'd run through Colby and Castletown

and then across the other train at Ballasella.

And tucked into the corner of the cab there,

you'd be out of the sight of the station masters,

and so you'd be all right.

NARRATOR: It would be easy to think that the young Mike Buttel

didn't have to bother with a train set at home

when there were real trains to play with - Dad and Granddad permitting.

MIKE BUTTEL: At Port Soderick Station,

it was a case of having to get off the loco

and back into the guard's van.

It wouldn't have done to be seen by Mr Kelly in Douglas

or, worse still, the general manager, Mr Sheard,

whose office was on the corner of the administrative buildings.

He had a protruding bay window and he could look out

onto the platforms and over the goods yard and see all that was going on.

And, of course, if I'd been seen getting off the footplate

in Douglas, then my father would have been in serious trouble

and probably up to Mr Sheard's office in double-quick time.

NARRATOR: But apart from the task of keeping the young Buttel

out of sight, there was coaling to be done.

And also maintenance of the engines,

which were getting on in age even then.

On the approach to Douglas Station,

MIKE BUTTEL: there used to be a big double-gantry signal

on the side of the workshops.

That's no longer there.

I was always bundled off to the signal box to sit with Bobby Tate,

who was a great old boy. He was the signalman at Douglas

and he would always have a brew of hot tea on.

I can remember sitting there, talking to Bobby.

You'd always get a cup of tea in one of these old enamel mugs.

It was steaming hot. So hot, you could hardly hold it.

And he'd sit and talk about the other two great loves of his life.

He used to breed budgies and make model boats,

and I spent quite a few happy occasions up with good old Bobby.

NARRATOR: But budgies and model boats permitting,

there was always lots to do at Douglas.

It was a busy railhead before the closures came.

Both Peel and Ramsey were then connected.

MIKE BUTTEL: Trains setting out from Douglas towards Peel and Ramsey

would always be double-headed.

The Peel and the Ramsey section would make up the train.

When the train would arrive at St John's,

it would be split into two sections.

The loco that brought the train up from Peel to St John's

would take the train back down into Peel.

The Ramsey loco would continue on the run up to Ramsey.

St John's Station was really the hub of the island railway system.

At one time, you could get trains out to Ramsey, to Peel,

back into Douglas and down to the little mining village of Foxdale.

It was always great fun

when two trains used to leave St John's at the same time,

one bound for Peel and one for Ramsey.

Officially, they were supposed to leave

within two minutes of each other.

But quite often, the crews would hang about

and they would race each other out of the station.

As I remember, the Peel train always used to win the race,

because it was going downhill.

But it's always great fun to be sitting in one of the carriages

of one train and watching the other train go away into the distance.

You could always tell the approach to Peel Station because

the smell of the fish factories and the kipper works would come up

from Peel to greet you before you were actually in the village itself.

Peel Station was situated right on the harbour.

A really picturesque setting on a sunny day.

If we went down to Peel, we used to take a picnic with us

and sit on the grass over by Peel Castle

and watch the trains come in and out.

It was a sad day when the Peel service finished in 1968.

NARRATOR: The trains may vanish,

but not all the names, or even all the buildings,

such as the stations themselves,

and this one is now a fisherman's co-operative.

MIKE BUTTEL: This is Glen Wyllin Viaduct.

There used to be a pleasure ground underneath, which was owned

and operated by the railway company.

There was a little cafe and amusement arcade and boating pool.

All the crockery was printed with the railway company crest.

It was a nice little place, Glen Wyllin.

NARRATOR: It's nice to remember the old days

and what a viaduct used to look like.

But keeping an aged railway going with ageing locomotives

and ageing rolling stock is a major problem for, among others,

traffic superintendent Graham Warhurst.

GRAHAM WARHURST: With the vehicles, it's really the age of them,

particularly the wooden-bodied coaches.

And we're now finding, as well as needing constant attention,

the older ones -

and I'm talking of coaches that have been in service for 100, 105 years -

are now requiring major bodywork attention.

NARRATOR: Yes, major bodywork attention.

And a considerable task for craftsman David Maddox.

DAVID MADDOX: When a wreck like this comes in,

when it goes out, it's as good as new. That's the satisfaction.

This coach here was being used the past ten years

down at the sea terminal as a tourist information centre,

handing out leaflets, selling tickets.

It was in a bad state, but in six months' time, it'll be running again.

It's going to be around probably longer than I will.

NARRATOR: There was nothing plastic about the old coaches,

and so nothing plastic about the renovation, just good mahogany.

But there's also nothing about the workshop

that smacks of very modern times.

It's more like industrial archaeology,

with the old machines still doing the same old job.

What was good enough for the Industrial Revolution

still keeps the wheels turning for the Isle of Man railways

and provides the power for Colin Goldsmith to do his new job.

He used to be an electrician.

I've had to learn a completely new trade, really,

and I've enjoyed a great deal of satisfaction from that

and knowing that I've been able to do that.

I've learnt to do a reasonable amount of boiler maintenance,

in respect of fitting in tubes, things like that.

We're carrying out this work now.

We've just done a reasonable amount of re-staying, it's been re-tubed.

Given that we'll probably have to re-tube every eight or nine years,

apart from that, we're thinking of

25 years' service out of this boiler

and, likewise, out of the other three boilers.

NARRATOR: Well, you might expect boilers to need re-tubing,

but what about springs breaking?

They've still got to be put right and you can't buy them off the shelf

any more than you can buy the engines.

So self-sufficiency is the keynote.

And remember what they used to do, and what they did it with,

and how they used the tools in those good old engineering days

when, if you wanted something, it was up to you to make it.

Mainly, it's a job where there aren't any hard-and-fast rules.

You've got to make a lot of your rules up as you go along.

If you work in a factory, everything is laid down for you

and you work exactly as you're told to work.

Here, as I say, you've got to make a lot of your own equipment

and a lot of fabrication.

And a bit of ingenuity, as well.

I'm not really a steam fanatic,

but it does give me a kick to see my own work.

It doesn't matter that it's a steam engine,

it could be any other old piece of machinery.

These things have to be preserved.

And I'm lucky I'm in a job where I'm doing that sort of thing.

The satisfaction that I get is in, well, innovation, call it,

using modern materials to make replacement items

for the old engines,

but using the techniques and equipment that the old-timers used.

Brian Crossfield, blacksmith. New springs for old

and the satisfaction of a good job well done.

But so, too, with the railway system as a whole

and keeping this piece of the old days alive in modern times.

It's that which is the task of the Chief Executive, Robert Smith.

We have people coming long distances to see the railway,

and although we seek cost efficiencies

and we can give value for money,

the railway must still survive in its present form

if we're to attract the people as a tourist island.

My job is to see that the railway steadily improves,

so that it's here for my son's generation,

my grandson's generation.

So into the next century, the Isle of Man Steam Railway

will still be here.