The Isle of Wight Railway was a railway company on the Isle of Wight, United Kingdom; it operated of railway line between Ryde and Ventnor. It opened the first section of line from Ryde to Sandown in 1864, later extending to Ventnor in 1866. The Ryde station was at St Johns Road, some distance from the pier where the majority of travellers arrived. A tramway operated on the pier itself, and a street-running tramway later operated from the Pier to St Johns Road. It was not until 1880 that two mainland railways companies jointly extended the railway line to the Pier Head, and IoWR trains ran through, improving the journey arrangements.
An independent company built a branch line from Brading to Bembridge, and the IoWR operated passenger trains on the line from 1882, and later absorbed the owning company. The IoWR was itself absorbed into the Southern Railway in the "grouping" of 1923.
The Bembridge branch closed in 1953, and in 1966 the Ryde Pier Head to Ventnor line was truncated to terminate at Shanklin. This was electrified, and former London Underground tube train stock was brought into use on the line; this arrangement continues to the present day.
First proposals In the first years of the 19th century, the Isle of Wight was established as a successful agricultural base, and there was some fishing. Cowes, on the River Medina, was the principal port, and Newport was the main industrial town. Ryde was an established town, but Shanklin had a population of 355 (in 1851) and Sandown was only a village.H P White, A Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain: volume 2: Southern England, Phoenix House Limited, London, 1961
The idea of visiting the Isle of Wight for reasons now described as tourism began to take hold, but these activities were limited by the poor internal transport facilities on the island. The easy money of the middle years of the 1840s encouraged the promotion of railway schemes, and in May 1845 public support was sought for an Isle of Wight Railway, which was proposed to build from West Cowes and Ryde to Newport and Ventnor. Capital of £300,000 was said to be necessary, but notwithstanding local support, the landowners to be affected were hostile and the scheme failed to gain approval.R J Maycock and R Silbury, The Isle of Wight Railway, Oakwood Press, Usk, 1999,
Nevertheless, and in October of the same year a Direct Ryde and Ventnor Railway was proposed; requiring only £120,000 in capital it would follow much easier ground and claimed that landowners would not object to it; this scheme fared equally badly and was almost immediately abandoned. The end of the Railway Mania resulted in the cessation of railway scheme promotion for some time, and it was not until 1852 that further railways were proposed, but these too failed to gain support.
In 1858 three viable schemes were developed and their bills were deposited in Parliament; they were
The Isle of Wight Railway (Eastern Section);This terminology is used by Maycock and Silbury prior to authorisation. to run from Ryde to Upper Bonchurch, with branches to Brading and Shanklin, and a tramway to Ryde Pier; electric telegraphs were also included; The Isle of Wight Railway; to run from Cowes to Ryde via Newport, with branches to Ventnor and Ryde Pier; The Cowes and Newport Railway.
Of these, only the Cowes and Newport Railway was passed, as the Cowes and Newport (Isle of Wight) Railway Act 1859 (22 & 23 Vict. c. xciv), on 8 August 1859, the other two being rejected in the Lords' committee.
A viable scheme
The promoters of the Eastern Section railway reconsidered the route they had proposed, and determined to improve on it by taking the line through Wroxall and ending it in Ventnor. They submitted a fresh bill for the 1860 session; the line was now to be named the Isle of Wight (Eastern Section) Railway. The Cowes and Newport Railway also submitted a bill, seeking to extend their railway and rename it The Isle of Wight Railway; the extensions were to be to Ryde and Ventnor, with a long line connecting the other two and forming a triangle. However this bill failed standing orders and was rejected. A number of objections to the IoW(ES)R Bill were heard, but none was effective and the bill secured the royal assent on 23 July 1860 as the (23 & 24 Vict. c. clxii).E F Carter, An Historical Geography of the Railways of the British Isles, Cassell, London, 1959Bradshaw's Railway Manual Shareholders' Guide and Directory, 1869, page 148
The railway authorised was from Melville Street (at the south end of the later tunnel at Ryde) to Ventnor, with branches to Brading and Sandown Bay; the authorised share capital was £125,000. Melville Street was the nearest the railway could get to the pier without expensive tunnelling and a station was planned there. A street-running tramway was to reach the pier from there. (The Sandown Bay line and the extension north from St Johns Road to Melville Street were not built. The "branch to Brading" was a short line to a wharf on the river.)
The London, Brighton and South Coast Railway and the London and South Western Railway were authorised to raise £20,000 each and to subscribe that sum to the . Captain Mark Huish, formerly the ruthless and successful General Manager of the London and North Western Railway had retired and lived near Ventnor, and he was invited to assist the directors in planning their railway construction. Huish suggested that the railway contractor Thomas Brassey could be persuaded to build the line if the LBSCR and LSWR would subscribe their £20,000 and one of them would agree to work the line. The Directors were relieved to have Huish's experience on board—none of them had experience of railway construction. On 5 February 1861 Brassey's company undertook to build the railway for £123,000, but this was for a single track of railway and exclusive of land acquisition, legal costs, and stations. The sum would exhaust the company's share capital. Worse was to follow: the LBSCR and the LSWR were in a state of competitive hostility, and the idea of collaboration was impossible.
Negotiations dragged on for some time; the board earnestly hoped that Brassey could be persuaded to build the line, but without the guarantees Brassey feared that the company as his client would become insolvent, and he declined.
Early in 1862 tenders were considered by the board; none of them were acceptable or affordable. On 20 March 1862 the engineer John Fowler was appointed as Engineer to the Company. He was asked to review the design and specification for the line's construction, and on 4 November 1862 a quotation from Henry Bond was put to the board with Fowler's support. For £126,000 he would build the line from Ryde to Ventnor with a Brading branch. In the first days of 1863 this, the largest construction project on the island, started work. A further contract for £17,500 with Bond was later concluded for stations and signalling.
The Isle of Wight Eastern Section Railway Act 1860 had authorised an extension northwards from St Johns Road to Melville Street, in order to make a terminal there for a street-running tramway to the pier. Much controversy had been generated in Ryde over the adverse effect on amenity in the area, and the company decided on 12 March 1863 to abandon the attempt to extend to Melville Street. Discussions took place with the Ryde Pier Company with a view to joint construction of a railway to the pier, but the talks broke down and in 1864 the idea was dropped. The Sandown Bay branch, also authorised in 1860, was abandoned.
The company name was changed to the Isle of Wight Railway by the (26 & 27 Vict. c. ccxxxii) of 28 July 1863. The name was considered to be more in keeping with the status of the company, as the bill had proposed a branch to Newport, there to join with the Cowes and Newport Railway. However negotiations with that company over the arrangements proved impossible, so that although the proposal had appeared in the bill, it was deleted before it was enacted.
Optimistic statements were made about early completion and opening of the line, but on 18 February 1864 a shareholders' meeting was informed that some land remained to be acquired for the line. Nevertheless, on 1 June 1864 the company secretary wrote to the Board of Trade giving notice that the railway would open in a month. There was then a delay with the rolling stock but Colonel Yolland made the Board of Trade inspection on 19 August. In fact this was only for the section from Ryde to Shanklin. Yolland found a number of detail points—the track ballast was chalk—but recommended approval for opening the line. The line opened from Ryde to Shanklin on 23 August 1864.
Carryings on the first section were encouraging, but constructing the tunnel at Ventnor was proving difficult. In fact the contractor was unable to complete it and went into administration, under its creditor, the finance company Warrant Finance. Eventually the work was substantially ready, although much cost-cutting had taken place. Colonel Yolland made an inspection in August 1866, but this time there were many deficiencies, including defective track. Receiving his report, the Board of Trade declined to approve the opening. Although the company was desperately short of money, it appears that some directors personally funded direct action by the contractor to rectify the problems, and Yolland reported again on 8 September 1866, this time recommending approval for the opening.
On Monday 10 September 1866 the extension to Ventnor opened for passenger traffic; goods traffic did not require Board of Trade approval and had already been started. The station at Ventnor was reported to be "far from complete", and it was above sea level.Richard C Long, Isle of Wight Railways—A New History, Ian Allan Publishing, Hersham, 2015, Ventnor tunnel was 1,312 yards in length.
During the 1860s the IWES built a short spur railway at Brading to a wooden wharf on the River Yar; the river was badly silted but small vessels could work on it.
The finances of the company had been severely strained; a shareholders' committee reported, "Your committee regret to have to state that the available assets at the disposal of the company are practically nil."Report of Committee of Shareholders of the Isle of Wight Railway, quoted in Long, from a newspaper report of 1 September 1866
Operation and traffic There were eleven journeys each way on weekdays and two on Sundays when the line opened as far as Shanklin. The journey time was typically 25 minutes. By November 1864, the weekday service was reduced to seven trains each way. Passenger business was better than expected, although that at Brading was disappointing. When the line was extended to Ventnor, the same number of trains ran, and the journey time Ryde to Ventnor was 30 minutes.
The passenger accommodation at Ryde was extremely limited, and within two years a second platform was provided to handle a more frequent train service than had been envisaged. During this period a turntable was put out of use, as the entire locomotive stock was tank engines. At Shanklin the line originally ended in a turntable used for engine release purposes, but this too was removed when the line was extended to Ventnor.
The line was operated in two signal sections, from Ryde to Sandown and from Sandown to Ventnor, and the train staff and ticket system was used. Sandown was the only intermediate station at which passenger trains could cross, but the loop was on the north side of the station and only one platform was provided there. Ventnor station opened with a single narrow platform, but by 1872, a second platform face was provided there too.