Isle Of Man Steam Railway

Saw it today - its reguaged or running on 2ft bogies - airbraked and has a rebuilt 1990VofR door treadplates - looked nice

 

I can say that I saw F.68 during restoration, a few years ago and it was on 2ft bogies then. I have an opinion about that ...

As for the "slab" track acreage, I'm sure there'll be a good reason - I can think of a couple !

 

Could you please elaborate on this? If there's a good reason for it then fair enough, but I worry that it will further erode the historic atmosphere of the station, which has already suffered heavily in recent decades...

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Did anyone else notice that in image 723366, the sleepers on the plain line renewal were plastic sleepers?
I can accept those more than concrete slab track, they look OK when buried in ballast and will outlast anything else used in the track. Unless the slab track is on well compacted foundations and has steel reinforcements, I fear it may start cracking within a year as it looks a bit shallow.... I hope the work is strong enough and my comments are unfounded.

Cheers. Neil

 

ISTR something about them putting in a crossing to give coal deliveries better access to the coal stage .... but it was awhile ago and I may have it wrong! The contractors, Auldyn Construction have done a lot of work on the Island's railways and I'm pretty sure I saw reinforcement going in.
Ray.

 

What concerns me about the Slab area, is the amount of unsupported rail. With the increase in the chair / Baseplate spacing.
Or is there more concrete to be poured filling in the under rail areas?

 

Hi Bryan, The area outside the shed and workshops was previously concreted up to rail level and there's a lot of concrete still to pour. It was just a case of getting the station back into use ASAP - as it was services out of Douglas commenced half a day late. There are no trains tomorrow or Wednesday so the contractors should have it to themselves.
Cheers,
Ray.

 

Some footage from this year's charters and service trains around them.

 

Interesting to see a few views of Number 14 on the first episode in series 2 "the big steam adventure.

https://www.channel5.com/show/the-big-steam-adventure/season-2/lake-district

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Full details of the forthcoming Heritage Transport Festival (30th July - 4th August) can be read here https://www.iombusandrail.im/media/2996/2024-manx-heritage-transport-festival.pdf
The 2024 season is shaping up to be a busy one with lots of tour groups, cruise ship passengers etc. so much so that last Saturday one set was made up to 7 carriages, the maximum for one loco unassisted.
Ray.
Edit: Certain events require pre-booking here https://iom-railways.ticketsolve.com/ticketbooth/shows

 

It's a shame the NATS3 trips up Snaefell sold out so quickly, I was excited when I saw that, and despite it being under 2 hours from the announcement, still failed to get a ticket.

John

 

Is it still hoped that No.9 will be cosmetically restored in time for the event?

 

As far as I know that is still the plan. When I last saw No.9 a month ago the boiler was clad and ready to be dropped into the frames.
Ray.