Isle of Man Railway stations

The story goes that the work nearly bankrupted the contractors, and the second cutting was completed on a much smaller budget, resulting in it being far narrower than the first, something that is apparent when travelling today.

In the past there have been other request stops at Ballacostain between Port Soderick and Santon, which served the rifle range used by pupils from King William's College near Castletown.

On the climb out of Douglas a farm named Lough Ned operated for a short time in the 1980s as a small wildlife park, and the railway served this with a ground-level platform.

[1] Download coordinates as: This was the first railway line to be opened on the island in 1873, and was operational continuously (with the exception of 1966) until September 1968, when the entire network was closed.

The brickworks office and water tower remain in place at the mouth of the yard and are occupied by the Manx Transport Museum Group, and the station site itself is now a car park for the heritage centre.

There was also a wayside halt for the exclusive use of the Bishop of Sodor and Mann at Bishopscourt, which comprised a simple bench seat and hand-operated signal to stop passing trains.

The station did however boast an extension along the quayside for a time, ideally situated to load and unload goods to and from the vessels in this busy port.

Today the station building remains in place in private ownership but the removal of two vital bridges in the 1970s has rendered it extremely unlikely that any proposal to restore the line would ever be successful.

There is evidence (in the form of images)[clarification needed] to suggest however that Foxdale Station may well retain some of its track to the present day - albeit buried under heaps of spoil.