Port Erin railway museum - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Port Erin Railway Museum in the village of Port Erin in the Isle of Man

Isle of Man

The Isle of Man , otherwise known simply as Mann , is a self-governing British Crown Dependency, located in the Irish Sea between the islands of Great Britain and Ireland, within the British Isles. The head of state is Queen Elizabeth II, who holds the title of Lord of Mann. The Lord of Mann is...

is a small display that shows the history of the Isle of Man Railway

Isle of Man Railway

The Isle of Man Railway is a narrow gauge steam-operated railway connecting Douglas with Castletown and Port Erin in the Isle of Man. The line is built to gauge and is long...

through exhibits and visual displays which chart the history of the railway from its opening in 1873 until the present day, covering the now-closed lines that served Peel, Ramsey

Ramsey, Isle of Man

Ramsey is a town in the north of the Isle of Man. It is the second largest town on the island after Douglas. Its population is 7,309 according to the 2006 census . It has one of the biggest harbours on the island, and has a prominent derelict pier, called the Queen's Pier. It was formerly one of...

and Foxdale as well as the remaining line to Port Erin to which it forms part of the southern terminus.

Location

The museum is situated beside railway station

Port Erin railway station

Port Erin Railway Station is the southern terminus of the Isle of Man Railway in the village of Port Erin on the Isle of Man; it is the sole remaining outer terminus of the railway but until 1968 there were termini at both Peel and Ramsey in the west and north of the island...

which is the southern terminus

Terminal Station

Terminal Station is a 1953 film by Italian director Vittorio De Sica. It tells the story of the love affair between an Italian man and an American woman. The film was entered into the 1953 Cannes Film Festival.-Production:...

of the railway, on Station Road in the village. It is housed in a converted bus garage that once belonged to the Road Services, itself a division of the old railway company. Since rebuilt in 1998 part of the old goods shed

Goods shed

A goods shed is a railway building designed for storing goods before or after carriage in a train.A typical goods shed will have a track running through it to allow goods wagons to be unloaded under cover, although sometimes they were built alongside a track with possibly just a canopy over the door...

has been incorporated into the complex, the other locomotive shed still being used as a workshop

Workshop

A workshop is a room or building which provides both the area and tools that may be required for the manufacture or repair of manufactured goods...

to maintain the locomotive

Locomotive

A locomotive is a railway vehicle that provides the motive power for a train. The word originates from the Latin loco – "from a place", ablative of locus, "place" + Medieval Latin motivus, "causing motion", and is a shortened form of the term locomotive engine, first used in the early 19th...

s and for overnight storage purposes. The museum is accessible from the station platform off the train, or by car parking in the nearby car park.

Exhibits in the museum include two engines and two coaches as well as other equipment from the railway. The royal carriages, as used by HM

HM may refer to:* HM , a Christian hard rock magazine* HM , pseudonym of Henry Molaison, a man with anterograde amnesia* HM, the IATA airline code for Air Seychelles...

Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother in 1963 and by HM

Majesty

Majesty is an English word derived ultimately from the Latin maiestas, meaning "greatness".- Origin :Originally, during the Roman republic, the word maiestas was the legal term for the supreme status and dignity of the state, to be respected above everything else...

Queen Elizabeth II

Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom

Elizabeth II is the constitutional monarch of 16 sovereign states known as the Commonwealth realms: the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize,...

in 1972, are preserved in the museum. There is also a large display of photographs, posters and other memorabilia. In addition to the framed exhibits of old posters and the like, further displays are mounte on the walls of the station building itself in the waiting room and booking office. These were once part of the museum and donated by a preservationists group when the facility was first opened.

History

The museum was first opened in 1975 when the Isle of Man Road Services (a subsidiary of the railway company) relocated to their new garage which is still extant today at the foot of the main platform. The building, consisted of metal frame and asbestos

Asbestos

Asbestos is a set of six naturally occurring silicate minerals used commercially for their desirable physical properties. They all have in common their eponymous, asbestiform habit: long, thin fibrous crystals...

cladding and for this reason was extensively rebuilt in 1999, since which time it has included a souvenir shop which is housed in the old goods shed; prior to this, the locos were kept overnight in this goods shed, the original loco shed being used only to store unservicable locomotives.

Shop

The souvenir shop is in the entrance/exit to the museum itself and has a small range of memorabilia, etc., a fraction of what was available in the boom of the centenary seasons in the 1990s. A nominal admission price is charged for entry and the opening times tie in with the operational dates of the railway itself. The shop is in the old goods shed and features a station-type building as a staff/store room as well as old luggage trolleys and framed displays before entering the museum proper.

Exhibits

Since it originally opened in 1975, the railway museum has housed a variety of major exhibits; notably two of the locomotives incarcerated here have been removed, overhauled and returned to service, these being No. 1 Sutherland and Manx Northern Railway

Manx Northern Railway

The Manx Northern Railway was the second common carrier railway built in the Isle of Man. It operated as an independent concern only from 1879 to 1905.- History :...

No. 4 Caledonia the latter of which remains in traffic; the main features are currently (2011) as follows:

No. 6 Peveril of 1875

No. 16 Mannin of 1926

F. 75 The Governor's Saloon

F.36 The Queen's Coach

Wood-Turning Lathe (Ex-Douglas)

Original (1873) Carriage Door

Mock-Up Station Masters' Office

The current exhibit Mannin has been an attraction since the museum opened in 1975 and was only removed for one season in 1998–99 whilst the structure of the musueum building received attention; since returning it has been turned to face chimney-first to Douglas and is no longer rail-connected. Prior to its restoration, funded by the Isle of Man Steam Railway Supporters' Association

Isle of Man Steam Railway Supporters' Association

The Isle of Man Steam Railway Supporters' Association is a railway preservationist group dedicated to the continued operation of the Isle of Man Railway on the Isle of Man Since its inception in 1966 the group have provided volunteer workers and a watchdog role and commenced its own project in the...

No. 4 Loch of 1874 was a main exhibit, being replaced by No. 6 Peveril when the former was removed to be restored.

Opening

The museum is open daily throughout the summer months, at the same time as the railway which is usually between March and the beginning of November each year. A small admission price is charged for entry.

Displays

Framed Original Ticket Displays
Photographs Of All Locomotives
Old Planes & Lathes From Workshops
Recreation Of Station Master's Office
An Old Snow Plough From The Line
Visual Display Boards Charting Histories

Sources

Isle of Man Steam Railway Supporters' Association

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