Isle of Man Railway locomotives

2 was named after the Earl of Derby who owned the Isle of Man before it was sold to the British monarch, and is often seen in early photographs without it back cab sheet (No.

This involved major rebuilding all of the engine's moving parts; replacing the most worn out components, new side tanks, cab floor, coal bunker and all pipework.

After storage it was privately purchased from the newly nationalised railway in 1978 but remained on site, being stored in the carriage shed at Douglas until it was demolished to make way for new bus garage and offices in 1999.

Upon nationalisation, the remaining frames were purchased by what is now the Isle of Man Railway & Tramway Preservation Society and stored in the open air at Santon, later Castletown.

[2] Built in 1894 and named after a character in a novel by Sir Walter Scott, this locomotive was for many years based on the railway's Ramsey Line of and remained in service until the Marquess of Ailsa's revival in 1967.

It was purchased by a preservationist group in 1978 with the goal of complete restoration, and in 1988 the boiler was lifted from the frames and sent to the Severn Valley Railway's workshops for re-construction.

It was partially repainted in the 1980s into a non-standard brown livery (one which is thought to have been carried by some locomotives based on early colour photos) with black and orange lining.

It was later fully painted, again in a non-standard black and red livery (the colour previously being used on the station building at Port Erin), which is still retained today.

In January 2023, the Isle of Man Steam Railway Supporters' Association unveiled plans to cosmetically restore the locomotive in order for it to take part in the 150th anniversary celebrations later that year, following a similar project with No.

Built in 1908 (Beyer Peacock works number 5126) and named after company director W. A. Hutchinson, it was delivered to the railway with Salter safety valves and a deeper-toned whistle than had previously been employed.

When performing steam trials prior to this, the locomotive appeared with "12a" chalked on the back cab sheet, supposedly by a superstitious workshop staff member.

It was a rarely used away from the Port Erin line during its active career and would be stored in the locomotive shed there when not required, as outside the holiday season the service was much reduced (partially because there was no boat train).

It remained in service until 1964 and was later repainted into spring green and placed on static display at St John's (and later Douglas) stations until entering the railway museum in 1975 with Caledonia and Sutherland.

This engine was built by Schöma of Germany in 1958 and purchased by the railway in 1992, replacing the time-expired railcars (see below) which after many years of neglect were reaching the end of their useful lives.

Upon delivery it had been in unlined green livery with the fleet number 208 on it cab sheet, a legacy of its first owner "Braunschweigische Kohlenbergwerke (BKB)", Helmstedt, Germany, where it had run on 900 mm (2 ft 11+7⁄16 in) gauge in an opencast coalmine.

17 saw some use in traffic during the 2010 season owing to steam locomotive failure; it is usually in operation as part of the annual railway-based events Rush Hour in April and May each year and the Manx Heritage Transport Festival each July.

The locomotive was originally built to work on the construction railway in the Channel Tunnel which accounts for the somewhat squat appearance, although the cab was extended upwards before its arrival on island.

However this disability, as well as the absence of a continuous vacuum brake system and a mechanically governed top speed of 25 km/h (16 mph) ensures that the locomotive is mostly used on shunting and permanent way duties, being unsuitable for passenger workings.

Technical issues included slipped tyres on the wheels, software problems, oil leaks, transmission seizures and traction motor flashovers.

In 2024 two small diesel-hydraulic locomotives were acquired secondhand from Bord na Móna in Ireland, whose 3 ft gauge industrial railway system was being closed down due to the end of peat harvesting.

Boyd in his "Isle of Man Railway (Oakwood Press 1967) points out that the Sharpies were dimensionally similar to the Beyer Peacock locomotives built for the IMR.

However in their use of a leading radial axle (rather than a Bissell truck) and other features, they were more conventional examples of mid-Victorian locomotive design than the Isle of Man Railway's Beyers.

3 Thornhill were built to an adaptation of a very successful 1866 design Beyer Peacock had supplied for the 3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm) gauge lines of Norwegian State Railways (NSB).

Whilst this did not increase the theoretical tractive effort, it was found that they were considerably less prone to running short of steam on the long climbs out of Douglas on the way to Port Erin and on the Ramsey line out of St. John's.

A 1949 colour photograph of Mannin shows it in unlined green (perhaps as a result of a repaint early in World War II), whilst Fenella is seen in a work worn late 1930s version of the livery applied when it was reboilered in 1936/7.

Spring green became standard livery until nationalisation, when the new Isle of Man Railways management decided to repaint the locomotives in a variety of colours to dispel the notion that there were only two engines on the line.

11 Maitland appeared in a variation on the Indian Red scheme, though it briefly ran in a dull black livery after being used for the BBC production of 'The Ginger Tree' in the late 1980s.

Wood was out-shopped in spring green in 2007 marking the 40th anniversary of the takeover by Lord Ailsa, and Caledonia reverted to it original Manx Northern livery shortly afterwards.

The Falklands War broke out shortly thereafter and being seen in Argentine colours was deemed inappropriate, so they were quickly repainted with a red and white scheme (the same as that carried by the island's buses at the time) and remained like this until withdrawal from service in the early 1990s.

Whilst all from the same manufacturer broadly to the same design, the Beyer, Peacocks all have slight differences; for example, the first three have their nameplates mounted forward of the injector feed pipe, whereas Nos.