Isle of Wight steam railway

The Isle of Wight steam railway bills its self as a 10 mile museum.

Running along a section of the former Ryde – Newport line it weaves its way through feilds and woodland.

Running from Smallbrook Junction (interchange with the Island line) to Wootton it passes through Ashey and the IOW Steam Railways Headquarters at Havenstreet.

The isle of wight had an interesting history railway wise, and for a small island had an extensive coverage.

Sadly beeching’s axe fell hard on the island removing 90% of the network.

The Isle of Wight steam railway is my second closest heritage railway, that said it is also the other side of the most expensive streatch of water in the world to cross.

‘A1X’ (Terrier) Class locomotives W8 ‘Freshwater’ and W11 ‘Newport’ running around the trian at Smallbrook Junction

The locomotives of the Island

One issue the Island lines faced was that most of the lines were only built to branch line standard meaning they were limited in the size an weight of locomotives that could be used on them, this led to steam surviving on the island a lot later than the mainland.

The IOW steam railway has managed to preserve some of these Locomotives, including the 02 class and A1x Terrier as well as the 38 stock.

For the reasons outlined above the the IOW railways tended to end up with all the locomotives no one else had a use for. That included the 02 class loco’s sadly W24 Calbourne is the last survivor of the class.

This is one of the few images I actually have of ‘Calbourne’ in steam and on the same day I had the privilege or riding on the foot plate thanks to the amazing Mrs Catpaw.

Another interesting part of the IOW’s rail history is the Ryde pier trams.

There is more history on these quirky railcars on the IOW Steams railways website.

Here I captured Drewry Railcar No 2 running passinger trips along the line.

‘A1X’ (Terrier) Class locomotives W8 ‘Freshwater’ and W11 ‘Newport’ awaiting the all clear at Heaven street towards Wootton

‘A1X’ (Terrier) Class locomotives were the work horses of the Isle of weight railways for many years being light and capable of operating on the tighter turns of the island lines.

Here W8 ‘Freshwater’ and W11 ‘Newport’are double headed towards Wootton on the last run of the day.

Ivatt Class 2, 41298 is one of three Class 2 locomotives owned by the IOW steam railway.

Although these loco’s never worked the island lines they are well suited to the job being small and powerful.

You can find out more Here

Hunslet ‘Austerity’ WD192 ‘Waggoner’ is one of 2 Ex War department Austerity class locomotives working at the IOW Steam railway the other being ‘Royal Engineer’ WD198.

Juno the third member of the class is on long terms loan at the National railway Museum Shildon where she is on static display.