The Little Trains, and Several Other Trains, part 2

The Isle of Man Adventure, continued

(Here is the first part of this adventure if you've not seen it yet)

On Friday we all walked to the Manx Electric Railway terminal at Derby Castle on a slightly less-murky day. It was good to have a bit of a walk, a decent bit of exercise after a lot of sitting about over the last couple of days. At Derby Castle terminal we watched our tram (or is it a train?) being prepared. Each one seems to consist of an enclosed tram car with trolley pole, towing a "toast rack" open coach which has an enormous seating capacity. It is a bit of a faff shunting this set at the termini because every time the powered tramcar changes direction the current collection pole has to be reversed, involving it being pulled off the conductor wire, pulled round and re-engaged with the wire. Eventually the crew managed to get the two vehicles in the correct order and then brought them to the tram stop, once they'd got the waiting passengers off the track, and we were able to board, all of our party opting to travel in the open coach.

The tram rattled and ground its way up and down the landscape, sometimes beside a road, sometimes not, until it arrived at Laxey, about half way to its northern terminus at Ramsey. We all left the tram there and carefully crossed the tracks to a waiting tramcar on the Snaefell Mountain Railway: this is an electric rack railway system that climbs the only mountain on the island and is the only such railway in the British Isles. On a clear day, I am told, you can see a long way, England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, but this was definitely not a clear day: the clouds came and went a bit as we ascended but by the time we reached the top we were in thick mist and a strong, cold wind. I stood on the summit and could not even see the tramcar two minutes' walk away. I came down to have a warming cup of chocolate in the café and found that my hair was streaming wet and my clothes soaked: the wet wind was like a spray and I had been thoroughly drenched.

We took the tram back to Laxey where we were free for a couple of hours before the booked journey back to Douglas. We had a home-made gelato at a little independent ice-cream parlour near the station, down here it was much warmer and almost sunny. Then it was time to walk along to the world-famous Laxey Wheel, the Lady Isabella. This is the biggest water-wheel in the world and extremely powerful. Its purpose was to provide power to pump water from the metal ore mines near Laxey, and the shaft connecting the wheel to the mine oscillates along a raised channel atop a long series of arches. The water that powers the wheel falls from the river above. You can see Lady Isabella in action on my video on YouTube.

Return to the hotel in Douglas was by the Manx Electric Railway back to Derby Castle, and we all travelled in the "toast rack" coach again, for the view. The party then boarded the horse-drawn tram at Derby Castle as far as Villa Marina, This was a new experience for almost everyone. Riding along smoothly on rails it was hard to believe that we were in a horse-drawn vehicle plodding slowly along the middle of the busy seafront road. The horse tram used to go all the way to the ferry terminal near our hotel but has been truncated at Villa Marina, so we did have to walk the rest of the way. We had done a lot and took the rest of the day easy before changing for dinner in the hotel restaurant once more. All our evening meals were included on this tour.

One thing we learned at The Old House of Keys was that early on in the days of motoring the Island's parliament voted to close the roads from time to time to allow racing, which was not something allowed in Great Britain of Ireland. The island is best know for the Isle of Man TT (Tourist Trophy) Races, and is visited by a lot of keen motorcyclists who like to ride the TT circuit, at more reasonable speeds. As it happened, the two weeks' practice for the 2026 TT Races was to start the weeks after we were there, and the preparations were well in hand: all the paraphernalia of a race track were being put into place and islanders were going away on holiday and letting their homes out to spectators.

Our tour included a ride on a coach along a substantial part of the circuit with a commentary from someone who has competed in TT races in the past. It is a long circuit taking in several towns of varying sizes as well as Snaefell mountain, and modern racing motorcycles reach speeds up to 200mph on suitable stretches of the road. It was fascinating, even to a non-biker like me, to hear about the way the racers drive around these roads. Not to be attempted when open to ordinary traffic! We had a brief stop at the village of St John's for Tynwald Hill and the parliament church where each member of the House of Keys has a reserved stall. 

From there we moved on to Peel where the former Isle of Man Railway station has been repurposed as the House of Manannan, a history of the Isle of Man and its seafaring. Apart from a visit to this, coffee and ice-cream, we also visited the Isle of Man's cathedral which is located in Peel. Finally, the coach took us on to Ramsey, still following the TC circuit, nd we returned to Douglas once more by Manx Electric Railway, choosing this time to travel in the enclosde tramcar rather than in the "toast rack" coach for the  long trip along the entire line from terminus to terminus. 

Sunday was a complete free day and the question was what to do. There were several things we had not seen, and some, like Snaefell mountain, could be repeated in order to enjoy what by now was lovely weather. Warm, bright and sunny, the view would be quite good. We decided, though, to attend worship at one of the Douglas churches (they are all different and we did some research on line and from noticeboards before plumping for St Matthew's) and then take a bus to Ramsey where we would visit the Grove Museum, a preserved Victorian family home. Buses are a bit thinner on the ground on Sundays but there was no problem finding a suitable departure on route 3A from the street terminus in Douglas to the little bus station in Ramsey from where we set out on a fairly long walk to the Grove Museum, taking coffee at a little café on the way. By now the road closures for the TT practice were being prepared and a real carnival atmosphere was beginning to build up. Motorcycles were parked everywhere as enthusiasts gathered to enjoy at least some of the four weeks of activity. You can read about the Grove Museum on their own website, so it suffices to say that we enjoyed sitting in the beautifully maintained garden with an ice-cream and then exploring the house and outbuildings which had been used by an extended family and had been very little updated and so gave a fair impression of the home of a middle-class industrialist's family.

We had left undecided how we were to return to Douglas and once we had walked back into Ramsey we opted for the bus rather than the Manx Electric Railway simply because we had done a lot of walking already and the bus would drop us much nearer the hotel than the tramway would.

Although this had been a day with no included outings, it was also the last day and for the only time on the trip the whole group was to have dinner together: two large tables were booked at a fixed time and wine was included, a very fine way to end almost a week together before we went our separate ways the following day. We also necessarily had breakfast at the same time, although not aound a shared table, on the Monday morning because we had to be ready to go to the ferry terminal to catch the departure of Manxman at 09:05, which meant being at the terminal at around 08:00 with our luggage - the hotel did provide porterage but we had very compact luggage and taking it ourselves saved having to have it ready even earlier! Once the luggage was scanned and checked in we took our seats at the front of the 8th deck again to enjoy the voyage.

The crossing was, if anything, even smoother than our outward journey, and we did make use of the bar and the café on the way over, but the restaurant was not needed after the hotel breakfast. We made our way to baggage reclaim and then went to await the boat train to Lancaster. About half of the party was still with us at this point, the rest presumably having gone to the car park to drive home. Everyone was, of course, taking different routes home from Lancaster and we had a while to wait for a train across to Leeds, so we had lunch from one of the buffet counters at Lancaster while we waited.

This was a very disappointing stage of our adventure. Departure was chaotic with platform changes, but eventually a Northern train arrived which was far too short to take everyone waiting along with those already aboard. By now the weather was hot and sunny and the train's air-conditioning was not working - not good on an overcrowded train on a hot, sunny day! We could not sit together and the luggage had to stay in the end vestibule. For a short hop, say from Morecambe to Lancaster, we would not have minded, but this was a long and scenic journey which we had hoped to enjoy together. A pity, but the train did eventually, and only a little late, get us to Leeds station, from wheer we had a short walk to our Premier Inn for our final night away from home. This stay was unbelievably inexpensive, so much so that I had booked a Premier Plus room for the first time and added the optional charity contribution. The Plus room at a flexible rate for just £66 was a great deal. We are very happy with Premier Inn's standard rooms, but this was certainly superior with more space, better coffee facilities and all sorts of goodies, and crucially the same comfortable bed. And being new it was also in excellent condition. The your Yorkshire staff were super friendly and helpful. 

We wandered into Leeds city centre in weather that contrasted hugely with the cool damp of just a couple of days ago (although I gather it had been like that for some time in England), had supper at an Italian restaurant and went back to the hotel to sleep.

The following day we each had our own agenda and as it continued to be hot and sunny it involved lots of drinking seeking of shade. I largely spent it taking architectural photographs and generally exploring. Having rediscovered Leeds as possibly the best shopping city in the UK, perhaps we need to consider going there again with that purpose in mind. 

We reconvened at the hotel, retrieved our luggage and boarded our LNER train south to Peterborough, in First Class with a snack meal and a glass of wine. The train made a neat connection with a train to Stamford and we were very soon home and unpacking, with our minds filled with wonderful memories of all our adventures of the last couple of weeks and a determination to revisit the Isle of Man, possibly by booking the same trip again but visiting things we had not been able to fit in on this trip, notably Peel Castle and the Manx Museum, and the Groudle Glen Railway. Before that, though, there was the little matter of a long-planned but yet-to-take-place spectacular trip to the continent in not many weeks' time. Watch this space!