Cliff railways in the Isle of Man

Two distinct cliff railways were built to carry customers between the hotel and the road along the sea-front.

The first lift was built in 1887 by Mr T. Cain, as a funicular with two parallel 4 ft (1,219 mm) gauge tracks.

It was a double 5 ft (1,524 mm) gauge water-driven funicular, running for 300 feet (91 m) at a gradient of 1 in 4 from just downhill of the Laxey Wheel to the valley floor below.

Four years after the opening of the Douglas Southern Electric Tramway, this funicular railway was built to carry passengers between the harbour and the northern terminus of the DSET.

Also referred to as the Douglas Head Incline Railway,[9] or the Douglas Head Cliff Railway,[4] it was constructed by Richard Maltby Broadbent, with two 4 ft (1,219 mm) gauge tracks running 450 feet (140 m) from harbour level at Port Skillion up a 1 in 4.5 gradient to near the DSET terminus.

It closed after the 1953 season, following the closure of the DSET in 1939 and the introduction of a bus service to the top of Douglas Head in 1950.

[10] It is the only cliff railway in Britain to have appeared on a British postage stamp: the Isle of Man Post Office 5p definitive of 1988.