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The Isle of Man Railway (IMR) ((マン島語:Raad Yiarn Vannin)) is a narrow gauge steam-operated railway connecting Douglas with Castletown and Port Erin. The line is narrow gauge and long. It is part of what was a much larger network that served the westerly town of Peel, the northern town of Ramsey and the small mining village of Foxdale, a network of over , large for an island as small as the Isle of Man. Now in government ownership, it uses original rolling stock and locomotives and there are few concessions to modernity. ==History== The line from Douglas to Port Erin is the last remaining part of the Isle of Man Railway Company, formed in 1870. Its first line, from Douglas to Peel, opened on 1 July 1873, followed by the Port Erin line on 1 August 1874. Initially the Port Erin line had been planned to terminate at Castletown, but the construction of deep water docks at Port Erin caused an extension to the line. A few years after completion, the dock was destroyed by heavy seas and the idea of deep water vessels abandoned there. The remains of the breakwater are still visible at low tide. A third line was built in 1878-1879 by the Manx Northern Railway, from St John's to Ramsey. A further short line was constructed from St John's to Foxdale in 1885 to serve the lead mines there. Although it was built by the nominally independent Foxdale Railway, it was leased to and operated by the Manx Northern. The loss of the mineral traffic from Foxdale and competition for the Douglas-Ramsey passenger traffic from the Manx Electric Railway placed the Manx Northern Railway in financial difficulties. It was taken over by the IMR in 1904. During the mid-1920s the IMR formed a bus subsidiary that operated most of the island's bus services, and helped the railway to remain profitable into the 1960s. The first serious examination of the long term viability of the railway came with the Howden Report in 1949, which recommended the closure of the Ramsey line, which was already losing money; the eventual closure of the Peel line, which was breaking even in the late 1940s; and the retention of the then profitable South line. Howden also reported that the existing equipment of the railway had an economic life of 10–25 years. Economies were made throughout the 1950s and early 1960s. These included the ending of evening and Sunday services, the deferral of track maintenance, and cuts to train mileage as locomotives became unserviceable. To further reduce expenses, winter closures of the Peel line (1960-61 only) and Ramsey line after September 1961, were introduced, but A. M. Sheard, the then general manager, refused to close the Ramsey line which by this time was losing a considerable amount of money annually. Following the closure of the County Donegal Railways in 1960, the IMR purchased the CDR's two most modern diesel railcars, which were then largely used on the Peel line in summer, and after 1962 worked the whole of the winter service except when withdrawn for maintenance. The system closed after the 1965 season but was briefly revived when the Marquess of Ailsa obtained a lease and reopened all three routes in 1967. Both the Peel and Ramsey lines shut following the 1968 season, but goods services between Peel and Milntown continued until mid-1969. Traffic was poor on the two northern lines, especially that to Ramsey, so after the end of the 1968 season, Ailsa decided to concentrate on passenger service on the South Line for three more seasons until he took the option to end his lease at the close of the 1971 season. Empty coaching stock workings continued on an occasional basis between Douglas and St John's in 1970 and 1971 for the retrieval of stored stock between seasons. During this time most of the early wooden framed carriages were moved to St John's where they were lost to a fire in July 1975. The Peel and Ramsey routes and the Foxdale line were lifted in 1975. The IMR operated services between Douglas and Port Erin after Lord Ailsa took his five-year option, beginning in 1972 through the centenaries of the Peel and Port Erin lines in 1973 and 1974 respectively. In 1975, the Port Erin line operated only from its southwestern terminus to Castletown, bring the painful realization that half a railway makes twice the loss. The government sponsored a modest extension of the service back to Ballasalla in 1976, and, after extensive campaigning during the 1976 Tynwald elections, the railway returned to Douglas in 1977, the last year in which the railway was operated by the IMR. Following nationalisation the railway has continued to be operated seasonally, for many years from Easter Weekend until the end of September, more recently from around 1 March to early November. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Isle of Man Railway」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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