FINAL YEARS OF ISLE OF WIGHT STEAM

Separated from the mainland by the Solent, the Isle of Wight has long had a distinct identity. This was also manifested in the network of railways which grew up on the island. Although two of the main pre-Grouping companies of southern England, the London & South Western and the London Brighton & South Coast, both had roles to play in the history of the growth of railways on the island, and, post-Grouping and post-Nationalisation, the island’s lines became part of the Southern Railway and Southern Region respectively, the network of lines on the Isle of Wight remained distinctive right through to the end of steam. For enthusiasts, the joy of these lines came from the continued use of Victorian coaching stock hauled by small and elderly locomotives right up to the final withdrawal of steam in December 1966. For railway enthusiasts in the 1960s, the Isle of Wight was a magnet, drawing them back on a regular basis to see, in the second half of the 20th century, railway scenes that were more reminiscent of the late 19th practice. However, such delights were soon to disappear as the harsh economic realism of the Beeching era was applied. Steam was doomed across the entire network and, because of the limited loading gauge that pertained on the island, the demise of steam threatened the entire network of routes that linked the island’s major settlements. In the event one line, that from Ryde to Shanklin, was saved and converted to operate with ex-London Transport Underground stock.

For a whole generation of enthusiasts, the mid-1960s witnessed not only the demise of the bulk of the Isle of Wight railway network but also the withdrawal of the last remaining vestiges of the Victorian steam railway. Amongst the many enthusiasts drawn to the Isle of Wight during these years was Tony Molyneaux. His photographs, supplemented by the work of other notable photographers of the period, have been drawn together by Kevin Robertson in The Final Years of Isle of Wight Steam, to provide a graphic pictorial record of steam on the island in the 1960s.

Though it is now more than 40 years since the final regular steam services operated on the Isle of Wight and most of the island’s network was abandoned, interest in the island’s railways, fostered considerably by the preserved Isle of Wight Steam Railway, remains strong. This latest addition to Ian Allan Publishing’s successful range of all-colour albums is certain to be popular with locals, tourists, railway enthusiasts and modellers alike.

Title: FINAL YEARS OF ISLE OF WIGHT STEAM
Author: Tony Molyneaux & Kevin Robertson
Format: HB 80 pages
Publisher: Ian Allan Ltd
Pub date: May 2007
ISBN 10: 0711032416
ISBN 13: 9780711032415

List Price: £14.99