The Item you are buying is one of a number of genuine handbills or other promotional material of the Isle of Man Railway issued from the 1880s to the 1970s.  Handbills are highly collectable, but narrow gauge material is understandably rare, but the fortuitous survival of a small cache of IMR handbills enables a representative selection to be built up.

The first handbill in this selection is

A) Isle of Man Rail & Bus Davidson Tours 1920s Handbill

This superb 5.5 x 10 ins handbill which is printed in black on green paper by the Herald newspaper office, Douglas dates from the 1920s. It was issued to promote tours organised by Mr Davidson, who was a  be-whiskered and imposing old gentleman who had been the official guide at the summit of Snaefell from 1895 to 1914, and after World War One ran conducted tours by tram, train and bus. It is undated but is probably 1928 or 1929, and for 4/6d or 22.5p in modern money, the visitor had a tour commencing at 10.30am from the bus station near the Market Hall in Douglas and returning at 5.30pm. Numbers were limited to 28 on account of the size of the buses, making this a rare early item of bus ephemera. Davidson, who relished the title, ”the old guide” invited visitors to join the new personally conducted tour , where they would have the sights pointed out to them, and hear the Island’s history explained. By all accounts, he was a great raconteur, so this reflects a long lost episode of tourism as well as an attractive early bus item.  The handbills were pierced on the upper left hand corner and tied string so a bundle could be hung up and passers by tear one off. This handbill has the hole but was not torn off, so is in exceptionally good condition with a clean face and reverse.

B) 1927 Isle of Man Railway, To visitors by this steamer “Where to Go” handbill.

 

In 1927, the Isle of Man Railway faced bus competition from the Cumberland based Manxland Bus Services. The Board decided that the manager, Thomas Stowell who was on retirement age was not the person to handle the crisis, and appointed one of its younger staff, Allan Mylchreest Sheard as Assistant Secretary & Manager, but placed him in de facto control. This handbill with the ‘Asst Sec & Manager’ title can be dated to 1927. Sheard felt that if you could grab the holidaymaker before he even got off the boat, then that was the answer and used the traditional good relations between the IMR and the IOMSPCo to have these handbills placed on board the IOMSPCo steamers.  The theme is “To Visitors by this Steamer – Where to Go – on Arrival at Douglas”. The station was at the Top End of the Harbour, but A M Sheard made sure that motor buses were ready to take visitors from the pier to the station. The handbill was particularly directed towards day trippers so the handbill refers to the places you could visit with a steamer arriving in Douglas about midday, and when you would get back to Douglas to catch your return sailing!

 

In a few words and in a space of 8.75 x 5.5 ins the handbill gives the day tripper all the information he needs to know. ‘AM’ hoped to capture him before he had set foot on the Island. Cumberland Motor Services was a part of the BAT group that fought it our with the Big Four railways in England. Their ONLY defeat throughout the British Isles was in the IOM where they faced Allan Sheard. He broke them and they sold out their bus fleet to him, saving the steam railway for posterity as a result. This handbill demonstrates Sheard’s relentless determination to win the battle and the ingenuity that was displayed in doing so. If a single document captures the determination of the IMRCo to survive this is it! It is one of a small supply that exists. There are minor closed tears not affecting the text or a couple of small holes.

C)  Isle of Man Railway & Bus Silverdale handbill undated but probably 1946

This interesting handbill, which measures 5.75 x 9 ins, is undated, but all known surviving copies were used in 1946 as scrap paper on the reverse, so must be earlier than December 1946. My assumption is that it was for the 1946 season. It refers to Silverdale Glen, which is near Ballasalla as ‘The Gem of the Island’, and most of the handbill relates to the facilities in the glen, including the water powered roundabout (Only One in Kingdom). Happily the roundabout survives to this day.

The handbill refers to a Good Bus and Train service to Ballasalla village, and that Peel and Castletown buses stop at the entrance to the Glen. As it is not headed, it is not possible to decide who issued it, and Silverdale Glen is an obvious possibility. Quine & Cubbon of Port Erin were not the usual printers for the IMR/Road Services, but would be local for the Glen. The IMRCo had worked with lineside venues in the past on the basis that their success was also the railway’s success, so an IMRCo subsidy is possible. Their use as railway company scrap paper shows that they were closely associated with the railway, and were presumably on display at railway stations.

D Isle of Man Railway - Braddan Church Trains on Sundays 1936 issue

This  5.5 x 9 inch handbill gives details of train services provided by the Isle of Man Railway Co on Sunday Mornings to Braddan station for OPEN AIR church services. Braddan is on the outskirts of Douglas, and as Manx tourism expanded rapidly over 100 years ago, the demand for religious services increased. At Braddan, the parish church was quite small, but was located on a sloping hillside, and a vicar had the idea of open-air church services in summer. These soon became a tourist attraction, as well as a religious event, and vast crowds flocked to Braddan. The Isle of Man Railway Co ran special trains from Douglas to Braddan to take worshippers to the service. As there was no run round loop, the trains ran on to Union Mills to run round and then returned to Braddan to wait for the congregation after the service ended.  As a mark of respect to the Lord, the locomotive was uncoupled from the train and moved a short distance down the line during the service. After the service the crowd hurried to the station, which was only open on a Sunday to get the train or the IOM Road Services buses back to Douglas.  The train service was advertised by means of handbills that were distributed to holidaymakers on the boats en route to the IOM, and in hotels, stations etc. This handbill, which is a 1936 issue, was left over at the end of the season, and the back was used for some rough notes, but the face is clean and unmarked. The handbills were pierced at the upper left hand corner and tied by string and a bundle hung up, for passers by to tear off a copy, so there is a clean tear, but this is how they were issued and it is clear of the text. A nice item relating to an unusual service.

E)   Isle of Man Railway  handbill/Timetable 1973

The next item is the oldest and the most unusual

^{Pocket Card Map of the Isle of Man produced for the Isle of Man Railway c1882.}

^{This pocket card map of the Isle of Man, which lies in the Irish Sea between England, Scotland and Ireland was produced c1882 for the Isle of Man Railway Co for promotional purposes.  It shows the Peel, Port Erin and Ramsey lines as completed by 1879. It does not show either the Manx Northern Railway or Isle of Man Railway Co proposals for a line to Foxdale, both of which surfaced late in 1882. This narrows the date to between 1879 and 1882.}

^{It does show a proposed railway diverging from the IMR near Braddan and running via an inland course through Onchan to a terminus near the Laxey Wheel. These proposals were advanced in 1881-82, suggesting that this Map may have been produced prior to the start of the 1882 season. It is on pale creamy white card 3 x 4.5 ins, so is intended as a pocket map. No printers’ name is given nor does it say that it is an official IMR map, but a small quantity of these maps were found in a drawer in the IOMR head offices many years later, suggesting its’ railway provenance.}

^{The Three Legs of Man appears on the cars surrounded by the motto, Quocunque Jeceris Stabit (Whichever way you thrown it, it stands). The coastline follows 19th century convention of the coast in a bold black line with three parallel lines to the seaward of it. Mountains, such as Snaefell or North Barrule follow the convention of a circle at the top with lines radiating out in a sunshine pattern, As well as the railway, towns, villages and roads are depicted.}

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Isle of Man Railway/Road Services folding red on white brochure 1/1959

The IMRCo produced a series of folding brochures in the fifties and early sixties, of which this is an example. folded, it measures 8.25 x 5.25" and opens out into 8 pages with the illustrations on the front of NO 16 Mannin, a Leyland Titan double decker and a Leyland Olympic HR40 single decker and a map on the back which still shows the Foxdale line which had closed in 1939! Inside there is a double page spread from the carriage window about the steam services and a comparable section on the Road Services buses. There is a page of adverts for the steam railway services and a page for the buses.

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