[May 27, 2025] Isle of wight railway steam gala (Ryde)

J.J
We were concerned that we would be caught under the trade descriptions act, We were not an express and we were not going to Essex. A comment was passed on to me from the Smallbrook Platform staff A lady was overheard to say " how ridiculous , there is no coast in Essex". Please come and see us. I think our two lines could work well together in the future.
A.B

 

The story of the geographically challenged lady had already got back here.

It reminds me of a story from my far-off youth. On holiday in Cornwall, I met a girl at a dance in Camborne. As we, ahem, got to know each other a little better, the conversation went like this;
Girl: Where do you come from, lover?
Me: "Essex".
Girl: "Where?"
Me: "The other side of London."
Girl: "But there 'ent nothin' th' other side o' London!"

JJ.

 

Great to hear about heritage railways and their staff sharing knowledge and building links. That's what makes the preservation movement "tick", whatever some visitors might say.

 

A point that might be worth mentioning is that the initial approach that led to 03 197s visit to the IoW came through NP.

Some say it's all inconsequential wibble, but here's proof that the forum can have real practical benefits.

 

Yes indeed but (a) there is a hell of a lot of wibble around on NP and the two organisations concerned are amongst the most wibble free of their sort there are.

Paul H

 

But does show what happens when organisations can help each other, its good to hear that the new owners of "clive" also are not ruling out a working return for the other island 03 some time in the future, as regards the former island tube stock, what happened to the former island vehicles not needed by the LU museum? or have they already been broken up? could one of those be given on loan to the IOWSR? and maybe a repaint into rail blue and the original green interior? did the steam age adaptor wagon survive?

 

I fear you are venturing perilously close to "wibble land"! Next time you are in the I.O.W. go along to Train Story and see how much space there is for extra vehicles. When the brake third four wheeler, currently reaching the end of its re-construction, has to be housed, things will be tighter still. If the LT museum has an example leave it to them.

PH

 

LU Museum have scrapped the cars that they no longer require - they were very rusty from the pictures that I have seen. There are still two adaptor wagons at Ryde, but I they are 1978 conversions originally for the Waterloo & City line, so not "Steam Age".

 

i mean just one vehicle, a trailor car or something, but as now reported they were scrapped so none remain, i assume you will also have the same view if SWT were to offer a 38 car when they are withdrawn, but saying that, i have a suspicion that they wont be withdrawn in 2018, but will have to remain in use until the line is finally axed.

 

If one of these has to be preserved it does not have to be on the I.O.W. The amount of covered accommodation available for stuff which is neither directly or potentially revenue earning is strictly limited and the rake of fully restored wagons and locomotives awaiting rebuild takes up much of this. I.O.W.S.R tidiness is one of the things which particularly appeals to visitors who, whilst not being gricers, have an interest in trains. That is what they say at any rate. "Gricers love of grot" does no favours to tourist railways as a whole and "grot" is what any vehicle with no potential for use is likely to end up becoming. One of the Ryde Pier tramcars is being reconstructed by contract at this time. It will, of course, be operable.

PH

 

As a non working member I went along on Sunday and was as usual impressed with the welcome and overall lack of tack, crap and scrap. This was a common remark by others as well so I fully agree with Pauls first part. However another common remark was the desire to ride on the Island Line and indeed as the full train disgorged its non enthusiast load at Ryde Pier Head at around 1045 on Sunday I overheard fellow entraining passengers for Sandown and Shanklin remarking favourably about the seating that actually had padding as opposed to SWT mainland or GTR horrors.

Where I diverge from Paul is his view the 38 stock would have no potential use for the Iof WSR. The IofWSR will need more coaching stock and operate as economically as possible for longer days when it returns to St Johns and a 2 car 38 unit coupled to a geny van for doors, lights and heating hauled by an 03 would be an excellent low operating cost train. I am old enough to remember the trial trains in the 60s with an 02 plus van plus VEC coach which seem to have worked well enough and this could also be repeated on Galas and special events.

Brian

 

Interesting thoughts Brian but IMHO a backward step. I gather something similar was proposed years ago utilising some redundant mainland emu stock but hauled by steam. The stock shortage was overcome in a far better way by the "rescued" four wheelers (shortly to get a seventh example) and if a diesel hauled train is required the loco could haul some of the existing stock. Not sure how this could be marketed apart from the odd Gala but there we are.

As an example of the latter point, some visitors turned up on the Sunday unaware of the Gala and were a trifle dis-appointed not to have steam haulage. Of course there are always those who can't tell the difference!

Paul H

 

Understand the reluctance with mainland EMU stock and recently the Vintage T stock was rejected and they were the same era as the railways loco hauled stock or older. However the 38 stock has been running on the Isle of Wight for long enough to give it family resident status I would have thought.

Well at least the dis-appointed visitors got a ride as 'normal' steam weekends would have finished by now and hopefully they will return on a normal service day next year. I suspect there were not enough of them to pay for steaming a loco but enough to make a profit running diesel. Same for us on weekdays in August, the DEMU makes a profit, steam would make a loss.
We also find on my home railway an increasing number think the black Class 10 with its polished brasswork in the cab and red rods is a steam engine. If it looks and feels old then people are happy they are getting a vintage experience.

Brian

 

The IOWSR now has a certain unique selling point, in that its one of very few lines where you are certain to travel in coaches that are of a type that once ran on the line, or on the island, so to inport anything non island will not work, but its also a limiting factor, in that they are stuck with what they have. at times unless the visitor numbers in high season have dropped, some customers will have a less than satisfactory experience, and unless you have an endless supply of potensial customers you risk having people decide to go elsewhere next time, no one enjoys being crammed into a compartment with families with bored kids often you can't wait to get off, just for your sanity if only to find another compartment that has better behaved occupants. on one visit, i had no option but to travel in the guards van with buggies to trip over, and the vintage (4 wheel) rake was also full to overloaded, does the railway sometimes become the victim of its own success?

 

Indeed, we find that most "normals" are quite happy with an 03- it has a "chimney", coupling rods and, if the engine produces a few puffs of the familiar "Gardner fog", the illusion of steam.

Regarding the "Standard stock", years ago I was offered a couple of those that were surplus to the LU Museum's requirements and looked at the assortment of ex IoW and old "sleet" cars that had been gathered at Acton. They were absolute rot boxes! By the way, have the "38" cars been stripped of asbestos? I ask because the "38s" on the Alderney Railway eventually gave rise to such concern that they had to be urgently replaced with "clean" and relatively rust proof (aluminium) 59 stock.

 

So far the figures for 2016 as announced are better than 2015, which was, itself, a record. The limiting factor is the platform at Havenstreet which will take five bogies or equivalent. I gather there is a reluctance to extend this on account of it being the only station, apart from Ashey, which originated prior to preservation.

So there would be little point in turning the operation into an ersatz main line even if the Light Pacific were not likely to get stuck under Long Arch Bridge! The "Museum Railway" aspiration is taken extremely seriously, even to the extent of using the public address system very sparingly indeed. No loudspeakers blaring forth incessantly in the lavatory here, as encountered on a tourist railway elsewhere (Ugh). Inevitably there will be compromises. No-one likes overcrowding but there will be times when the place is very busy indeed, as I remember Ryde to Sandown being when I was a child. However there are plenty of times when you can have your own compartment, sprawl back in your seat, listen to the sound of the Westinghouse pump through the open droplights and relish the smell of "best Welsh" wafting in.

PH

 

Don't know the answer re asbestos. There are people on this thread who may do but alas not I!

Paul H

 

I think that the current IWSR strategic vision document ( http://www.iwsteamrailway.co.uk/strategic-vision.aspx ) does not exclude "modern era" preservation, so let's all wait and see.

 

in hindsight prehaps the railway was wrong to have not preserved a standard car when they were withdrawn, but at the time, they didnt have the space or the money, hindsight is a great thing, i was not advocating changing what i think is one of the best railways in the south east, but saying it does have it's drawbacks, and being in the leasure market has to compete with other attractions, part of the attraction is that it is like a trip back in time, but that could be said of the island get off the catererman and you are presented with a vintage tube train, i do wonder its a pity the IOW bus museum wasnt relocated to havenstreet on the other side of the bridge, to give another reason to visit havenstreet, who knows, if it had, you could have offered vintage bus rides across the downs to take some pressure off the railway

 

... apart from the Kelvedon and Tollesbury Light Railway. My first ever railway book (by N J Stapleton I think), back in 1964 when I was 13, and it made me think that Essex was a delightful rustic county. I'm sure that it still is, in parts.

John