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The Manx Northern Railway (MNR) was the second common carrier railway built in the Isle of Man. It operated as an independent concern only from 1879 to 1905. == History == When the people in the town of Ramsey realised their town was not going to be incorporated into the newly promoted Isle of Man Railway (IOMR) network in the 1870s it was left to them to promote their own railway as a link with the rest of the island. The rugged geography of the east coast forced the Manx Northern Railway into an indirect route - first westwards to Kirk Michael and then south to St John’s where a junction could be made with the Isle of Man Railway’s Peel to Douglas line which opened in 1873. Built to a common Manx gauge, a narrow gauge, construction began in 1878 and the railway opened for business without formality on 23 September 1879. It was initially operated by the Isle of Man Railway until 6 November 1880 when the MNR took over the responsibility.〔Boyd (1993); p. 121 and 125〕 In 1881, passenger services started operating through to Douglas using running rights over the tracks of the Isle of Man Railway.〔Winter (2007); p. 10-11〕 Some impressive engineering works were required on the west coast section of the line including the bridging of the deep Glens of Wyllin and Mooar. An embankment high on the cliffs south of Glen Mooar, the ‘Donkey Bank’ was an unending maintenance problem and a drain upon the line's profitability.〔Basnett (2008); p. 51, 54 and 93〕 In an attempt to stabilise the track, this section possessed the only part of the Manx railways to have its rails mounted in chairs. The rest of the system had the rails directly spiked to the sleepers. In the northwest, near Jurby, the MNR had a halt purely for the use of the Bishop of Sodor and Man at Bishop’s Court. A simple wooden bench comprised the station's entire facilities at His Grace’s personal stop. The northern part of the line was flat compared to the coastal section and was characterised by numerous hand-worked level crossings. These were so close together in places that the protecting signals for one crossing stood beside the previous crossing up the line. A distinctive lattice girder bridge, the ‘basket bridge’ was built over the Sulby River near Ramsey. It was renewed in 1914. The MNR possessed the only dockside track on the railway system allowing direct transfer between the railway and sea-going vessels. This line, at Ramsey, opened in 1883 and closed in 1952.〔〔Hendry and Hendry (1980); p. 20-21 and 87〕 Various schemes to emulate this in Douglas were often raised but the work was never undertaken.〔Boyd (1993); p. 258: "Douglas Quay Tramway" index entries〕 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「Manx Northern Railway」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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