Isle of Wight Railway

thumb|System map of the Isle of Wight Railway in 1900

The Isle of Wight Railway was a railway company on the Isle of Wight, United Kingdom; it operated of railway line between Ryde and Ventnor. It opened the first section of line from Ryde to Sandown in 1864, later extending to Ventnor in 1866. The Ryde station was at St Johns Road, some distance from the pier where the majority of travellers arrived. A tramway operated on the pier itself, and a street-running tramway later operated from the Pier to St Johns Road. It was not until 1880 that two mainland railways companies jointly extended the railway line to the Pier Head, and IoWR trains ran through, improving the journey arrangements.

An independent company built a branch line from Brading to Bembridge, and the IoWR operated passenger trains on the line from 1882, and later absorbed the owning company. The IoWR was itself absorbed into the Southern Railway in the "grouping" of 1923.

The Bembridge branch closed in 1953, and in 1966 the Ryde Pier Head to Ventnor line was truncated to terminate at Shanklin. This was electrified, and former London Underground tube train stock was brought into use on the line; this arrangement continues to the present day.

First proposals

In the first years of the 19th century, the Isle of Wight was established as a successful agricultural base, and there was some fishing. Cowes, on the River Medina, was the principal port, and Newport was the main industrial town. Ryde was an established town, but Shanklin had a population of 355 (in 1851) and Sandown was only a village.

The idea of visiting the Isle of Wight for reasons now described as tourism began to take hold, but these activities were limited by the poor internal transport facilities on the island. The easy money of the middle years of the 1840s encouraged the promotion of railway schemes, and in May 1845 public support was sought for an Isle of Wight Railway, which was proposed to build from West Cowes and Ryde to Newport and Ventnor. Capital of £300,000 was said to be necessary, but notwithstanding local support, the landowners to be affected were hostile and the scheme failed to gain approval.

Nevertheless, and in October of the same year a Direct Ryde and Ventnor Railway was proposed; requiring only £120,000 in capital it would follow much easier ground and claimed that landowners would not object to it; this scheme fared equally badly and was almost immediately abandoned. The end of the Railway Mania resulted in the cessation of railway scheme promotion for some time, and it was not until 1852 that further railways were proposed, but these too failed to gain support.

In 1858 three viable schemes were developed and their bills were deposited in Parliament; they were

The Isle of Wight Railway (Eastern Section); to run from Ryde to Upper Bonchurch, with branches to Brading and Shanklin, and a tramway to Ryde Pier; electric telegraphs were also included;
The Isle of Wight Railway; to run from Cowes to Ryde via Newport, with branches to Ventnor and Ryde Pier;
The Cowes and Newport Railway.

Of these, only the Cowes and Newport Railway was passed, as the Cowes and Newport (Isle of Wight) Railway Act 1859 (22 & 23 Vict. c. xciv), on 8 August 1859, the other two being rejected in the Lords' committee.

The railway authorised was from Melville Street (at the south end of the later tunnel at Ryde) to Ventnor, with branches to Brading and Sandown Bay; the authorised share capital was £125,000. Ventnor tunnel was 1,312 yards in length.

Operation and traffic

There were eleven journeys each way on weekdays and two on Sundays when the line opened as far as Shanklin. The journey time was typically 25 minutes. By November 1864, the weekday service was reduced to seven trains each way. Passenger business was better than expected, although that at Brading was disappointing. When the line was extended to Ventnor, the same number of trains ran, and the journey time Ryde to Ventnor was 30 minutes.

The passenger accommodation at Ryde was extremely limited, and within two years a second platform was provided to handle a more frequent train service than had been envisaged. During this period a turntable was put out of use, as the entire locomotive stock was tank engines. At Shanklin the line originally ended in a turntable used for engine release purposes, but this too was removed when the line was extended to Ventnor.

The line was operated in two signal sections, from Ryde to Sandown and from Sandown to Ventnor, and the train staff and ticket system was used. Sandown was the only intermediate station at which passenger trains could cross, but the loop was on the north side of the station and only one platform was provided there. Ventnor station opened with a single narrow platform, but by 1872, a second platform face was provided there too.

By this time Ryde Pier (the second structure) was 745 yards in length, and travellers using it had a long walk to the shore; this was a serious competitive disadvantage compared to Cowes, where no such difficulty existed. A horse tramway started operation on the pier itself on 27 August 1864, but the gap from the pier to the station at St Johns Road had no railway connection, and for some time was a source of inconvenience.

Much of the seasonal traffic came from the mainland, and despite the inconvenience of the gap from the pier to the station, the traffic was buoyant. In 1867 it was decided to run 14 trains each way on weekdays, and this put a strain on the engine power available to the line. Goods traffic was run at night to free up the resources for passenger trains, but the goods traffic was important to the island economy; much of it came in through Brading Harbour. This included considerable volumes of building materials, feeding the development of residential and boarding house building.

In 1867, 384,000 passenger journeys were made, with goods traffic receipts amounting to about 10% of the passenger income. However, in that year working expenses had ballooned due to unspecified exceptional expenditure, and slightly exceeded the gross income. In subsequent years working expenses settled down to 65% (1869) and 63% (1870) of gross receipts.

Maycock states that during the summer of 1867 there were extensive military manoeuvres in Sandown Bay and a temporary halt was opened, named either Yarbridge or Morton Common, but this is not confirmed by other sources.

There were 221 goods vehicles lasting to grouping in 1923. These comprised 189 open goods wagons (allotted SR numbers 27787–27975), thirteen flat trucks (SR nos. 59011–23), twelve covered goods wagons (SR 46975–86), three cattle wagons (53377–9), two tar tanks (61381–2) and two brake vans (56033–4). In addition to these, there were three in departmental stock: two travelling cranes (SR nos. 425S and 426S) and a match truck (SR no. 426SM). The open goods wagons were also used for coal, and had carrying capacities ranging from . The flat trucks included five designated as timber trucks – these had a transverse bolster to support the load. The two cranes were both hand-operated, and could lift respectively; and the match truck was used to support the jib of crane no. 426S when travelling.

Other railways

The Cowes and Newport Railway had been the first line to be opened on the Isle of Wight, in 1862.

A connection to Ryde was made by the Ryde and Newport Railway, which met the IoWR at Smallbrook, south of Ryde. The IoWR constructed a second track alongside its own from Smallbrook to Ryde and the R&NR used that track and the IoWR Ryde station, paying a rental for the purpose. The R&NR opened to traffic from a station near Newport on 20 December 1875.

A bill was submitted to the 1877 session of Parliament for powers to build a widened pier and a railway to St John's Road, in tunnel for much of the way from the Esplanade. The mainland companies intended to operate the trains themselves as far as St Johns Road; the island companies would take them on from there. The (40 & 41 Vict. c. cvii) passed on 23 July. On further consideration it was agreed that the IWR and R&NR would have running powers to the Pier Head and work their own trains through; they would pay a toll of 3d per passenger booked to or from Ryde, including St Johns Road.

thumb|Ryde Pier with a steam train and electric tramcar

Five or six steamers could berth at the pier simultaneously. It was of 16 ft 5 in length, but in 1936 it was replaced by a 25 ft turntable, for the introduction of the larger O2 class engines. On 14 February 1884 the Isle of Wight Marine Transit Company Limited was formed with capital of £30,000. The Transit company took over the agreements and the Carrier and the shore equipment for £28,425. Carrier could carry up to 14 wagons on two tracks, each having a maximum load of four tons.

The transfer ramps were installed at St Helens and Langstone, and services began on 1 September 1885, used by the LBSCR. In practice Carrier had difficulties in operating in the exposed waters of the Eastern Solent, but the LBSCR was persuaded that the undertaking was a worthwhile investment and bought the company in 1886. The service operated at a considerable loss until it ended on 31 March 1888. The gear at St Helens was sold for scrap in 1900.

Brading Harbour Company

The had long been in receivership and as part of a capital reconstruction it changed its name to the Brading Harbour and Railway Company (BHR) by the (59 & 60 Vict. c. ccxliii) of 14 August 1896. The railway part of the business was not much affected, but the United Realisation Company, a finance house which now owned the BHR, offered to sell the railway and quays to the IoWR. A price was agreed and the (61 & 62 Vict. c. cxcviii) of 2 August 1898 session authorised the transfer.

Electrification proposals

From December 1908, a group calling itself the Electric Railways Syndicate pressed the supposed advantages of electrification of the Island's railways. For £1.2 million all the railways of the island were to be purchased and electrified, using an overhead ac system similar to that being installed on the London Brighton and South Coast Railway suburban system. The electrification work itself was to cost about a quarter of the sum. A 4 MW power station would have been provided at Newport. The scheme included a number of line extensions and other improvements which inflated the cost; a frequent passenger service was planned. this was brought into use on 23 June 1927. recommending radical changes. The report has become known as The Beeching Report, after the Chairman of British Railways at the time, Dr Richard Beeching.

Many rural branch lines considered to be loss-making were to be closed, in hand with a major reduction in unremunerative wagonload goods traffic and many other changes. In March 1964, BR announced that all of the lines on the Isle of Wight were planned to be closed, but vigorous local protest secured the retention of the Ryde to Shanklin section of the former Isle of Wight Railway, despite controversy that the TUCC inquiry stated that closing the Ryde to Ventnor line would cause severe hardship but British Rail then suddenly proposed curtailing the line at Shanklin, which was accepted by the Minister of Transport, Barbara Castle

The southern extremity, from Shanklin to Ventnor, closed on 18 April 1966.

The basic train service was half-hourly, but the peak service was five trains an hour. This frequency was sufficient to handle the pier tramway system's traffic, and that was discontinued from January 1969. awaiting restoration, 4w 3-comp composite no. 10, built 1864, has returned to operational condition on the Isle of Wight Steam Railway in 2017 as part of Channel 4's 'Great Rail Restorations with Peter Snow', 4w 3-comp first no. 21, built 1864, is awaiting restoration on the Isle of Wight Steam Railway, 4w second no. 35 built in 1875 is awaiting restoration on the Isle of Wight Steam Railway, 4w composite no. 38, built 1882, is awaiting restoration on the Isle of Wight Steam Railway in their exhibition shed and 4w 4-comp second no. 39, built 1882, is also awaiting restoration on the Isle of Wight Steam Railway. These carriages are considered to be of the greatest significance for the IoWSR's collection, along with other carriages that previously ran on the original Isle of Wight Railway.

Three goods vans, nos. 57, 86 and 87 on the Isle of Wight Steam Railway. It is also planned that these will be restored. No. 57 is currently inside the IoWSR's exhibition shed.

Many carriages that also ran on the Isle of Wight Railway that were purchased from previous railways also survive on the Isle of Wight Steam Railway; multiple LCDR & LB&SCR, SECR, one MSJAR, etc. Many of these have been returned to service on PMVY underframes.

The body of one of the Isle of Wight Railway's carriages is in use on the island as of January 2017. It was acquired from the North London Railway in December 1897 although it did not arrive until the following year. It is numbered 6336, and runs on the converted underframe of a parcels van.

Present day

Passenger services on the line between Ryde Pier Head and Shanklin are operated as the Island Line, by South Western Railway.

Future

On 23 May 2020, the Department of Transport announced that approval had been given to investigate the possible reinstatement of some or all of the tracks between Shanklin and Ventnor and Ryde and Newport. It was one of ten schemes across UK approved for more study under an "Ideas Fund".

Heritage railway

In 1991 a new station was opened at Smallbrook Junction. It provides a connection with the Isle of Wight Steam Railway, a heritage railway operating part of the former IoWCR between Smallbrook Junction and Wootton.

Station list

Ryde Pier Head; LBSCR/LSWR joint line station; opened 12 July 1880;
Ryde Esplanade; LBSCR/LSWR joint line station; opened 5 April 1880;
Ryde St Johns Road; opened 23 August 1864;
Smallbrook Junction; 21 July 1991; exchange platform for Isle of Wight Steam Railway; no road access;
Brading; opened 23 August 1864;
Sandown; opened 23 August 1864;
Lake; opened 11 May 1987;
Shanklin; opened 23 August 1864;
Wroxall; opened November 1866; closed 18 April 1966;
Ventnor; opened 10 September 1866; closed 18 April 1966.
Bembridge; opened 27 May 1882; closed 21 September 1953;
St Helens; opened 27 May 1882; closed 21 September 1953;
Brading; above.