IOMR, Workington  CKPR through tickets

My late father, Dr Robert Preston Hendry researched IOM tickets for many years, and two of the most astonishing were the Workington & IOM SS Co, Keswick to Ballaugh and Peel Road excursion tickets. The idea that there would be a significant number of excursionists travelling from Keswick on the Cockermouth, Keswick & Penrith Railway via Workington and a steamer to visit Ballaugh in the IOM seemed fanciful.

Eventually an Isle of Man Railway Co note of 23 July 1892 gave the answer, as the IMR only agreed to such tickets, 'provided the tickets were issued by the Steamship company so that the contract should be made with them.'  It was a legal device to avoid any blame if anything went wrong, so the excursion was actually from Ballaugh or Peel Road TO Keswick, which was a popular Lakeland resort!

The tickets were sold at MNR stations but only Ballaugh and Peel Rd  survived, but the latter is now out of stock. The passenger would travel on the MNR and IMR to Douglas, and then join the W&IOMSS Co steamer for the sail to Workington. From Workington to Cockermouth the journey was on the LNWR and then by the CKPR to Keswick, a total of four railway companies and one shipping line!

The Ballaugh tickets are in good condition 

A little background on the W&IOMSSCo may be of interest. Six ledgers survive in the Cumbria Archives, one being the Allotment book of 1892 which lists to whom shares were allotted so suggests the company was founded in 1892. It apparently survived until 1949. In 1892 the company bought or chartered the 1866 iron paddle steamer PS Herald, which had been built by Caird at Greenock, and operated by J Little at Greenock or Barrow, but in 1891 had been employed on the Barrow Steam Navigation service to the Isle of Man. In 1892 it was running for the W&IOMSSCo, and was broken up at Renfrew in 1894. 
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IMR LNWR Style Manchester Excursion with IRISH MAIL prohibition!

For decades, LNWR tickets prohibited third class passengers from travelling on the Irish Mail as the loading was kept light due to severe penalties to the GPO for late running.  This IMR return ticket between Castletown and Manchester contains the standard LNW notice on the reverse, 'Not available by Irish Mail or Limited Mail unless stated in the Co's Time Tables & Notices to be so.'

As the IMR never ran an Irish Mail or Limited Mail trains, the note has NO relevance to the IMR so is an astonishing link to the LNWR connections with these tickets. 

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MNR, IMR, Mona Steamship Co circular tour 1890s 

John Cameron, the manager of the Manx Northern Railway was keen to promote all sorts of excursions and worked with the Mona Steam Ship Co which operated small coastal pleasure steamers along the east coast of the IOM from Douglas to Laxey, Dhoon Glen and Ramsey. The tout could be north by sea and south by rail or Vice Versa. We offer two different MNR-IMR-Mona SSCo ticket sets one of seven different tickets with a southbound SEA journey, i.e. Ramsey to Douglas by the MSSCo boat, Fairy Queen. The other set is with the northbound sea journey.

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MNR, IMR, IOMSPCo circular tour 1890s 

Similar tickets were printed for the Isle of Man Steam Packet/IMR/MNR joint circular tour, and we have a set of seven tickets for the southbound sea journey and a different set of five tickets for the northbound sea journey.

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IMR Isle of Man Railway single ticket to ----- on LYR (LYR style numbers) RARE

 In over 40 years study of Isle of Man Railway Co tickets, I have seen hundreds of rare types, but this yicket is from a small batch of tickets which are quite unlike normal IMR tickets. IMR tickets before 1914 were printed by Waterlows and bore a close house style and these tickets have no similarities with IMR tickets. Instead they are like LYR tickets in styling and are to a BLANK destination on the LYR VIA the IOMSPCo and LIVERPOOL EX or Exchange which was the big LYR station in Liverpool.

The line 'Fare' is typical of LYR blank tickets but not normal for the Isle of Man, and the ticket is top and bottom green bands with white centre band.  The IMR ticket ledgers show that Waterlows produced tickets for major journeys, eg Douglas-Port Erin 3rd return by the tens or hundreds of thousands, but even minor journeys were produced in runs of 250, but to the best of my belief NO example is known of any of these tickets numbered above 50, and I am unaware of any surviving numbers below 40. Today surviving copies in the hands of collectors are in the 'fingers of one hand' quantity.


Other than to suggest it is some joint venture with the LYR with the hand of the LYR predominant I can say little more.  It is perhaps useful to add that when Thomas Stowell was manager of the IMR from 1903 onwards, the relationship with the LYR was VERY close, indeed much closer than with the LNWR, as had been the case, and LYR officers regularly holidayed in the IOM and called to see Stowell.  It will be recalled that the IMR even adopted an LYR two tone brown livery in Stowell's time!


This ticket is Third Class Rail and Saloon by boat, which was the equivalent of first class, but third class sea (Steerage) was far worse than 3rd class rail so many people opted to travel in this way.  It is a rare chance to obtain a pre-1914 LYR style ticket which was probably printed by the LYR given its styling but issued by the IMR for travel by train, boat and LY train.


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IMR Isle of Man Railway return ticket to ----- on LYR (LYR style numbers) RARE

even rarer is the LY style return ticket with vertical banding