‘Underground Trains on the Isle of Wight’, by Brian Hardy, 4th June 2024
4th June 2024 Meeting.
For our June Meeting we welcomed back former LT Head Controller Brian Hardy for another presentation, this time 'Underground Trains on the Isle of Wight' which started with some old Metropolitan Railway carriages. Steam finished on 31st December 1966 and the island railways really shrunk leaving just Ryde Pier Head to Shanklin! This had opened in 1864.
The chance was taken to raise the trackbed in Ryde tunnel to prevent flooding [this didn't work though] and decrease gradients.
Standard Stock which had been built between 1923 and 1934 took over from March 1967 with 660V third rail electrification and were designated as British Rail classes 485 and 486.
In the 1980s, British Rail was sectorised and the line became part of the Network SouthEast Sector. Services on the line were branded as Ryde Rail. BR opened two new stations on the line, Lake in 1987 and Smallbrook Junction in 1991, this one only being opened when the Isle of Wight Steam Railway is running. In 1989 the service was branded as Island Line, but the previous year the Brading loop was taken out.
Ryde St Johns Road. Image Credit: Brian Hardy.
These ran until 1989 when the 1938 tube stock [BR Class 483] took over and these ran until 2021 and were retired off at 83 years old! The next trains to take over were not tube trains but former District Line D78 Stock [Class 484] and five sets of these started services from 1st December 2021 after extensive flooding at 16 sites along the line.
We saw all stocks at all the stations as well photos of flooding in the tunnel area, the new Brading loop and some depot shots.
An unusual and interesting presentation with an attendance of 24.
Rob Davidson, Branch Secretary