30 Years of Visiting the Isle of Man.

By Keith Handley, Written in 1998.

The following article is an account of some of my many visits to the Isle of Man over the last 30 plus years. It is based on memories and a few photos, so the facts may drift a little, the weather may be better and the Manx Ices taste even better than they actually were. I hope you enjoy some of it and if you do, why not email me your own memories of visiting the island , leaving peoples names out if you want to. I'm sure you can do better than I have done. I hope you enjoy it.

My first visit to the island was when I was a few months old in 1963, it was only family circumstances that stopped me being born on the island, but within a few months I had made my first crossing, I believe had a good time and started what was to become a way of life, visiting the Isle of Man. I didn't visit annually after then, there were some years without visits, some years with many visits, but it was always something to enjoy. My next visit was in the Autumn of 1966, the Football World Cup in England passed me by, but I have vague memories of travelling by boat from Liverpool, maybe spending the crossing in a cabin, and looking out of the portholes. I attended a family wedding, but little of the trip stays in the memory, as when you are 3 years old, not much stays in the memory for the long term.

I returned to the island in the September of 1968 for another family wedding, this time by plane possibly from Manchester or East Midlands Airport. On arrival at Ronaldsway Airport, as all the passengers walked down the steps from the plane, their photograph was taken. You were then given a card and you could buy the photograph later in the week. This looking back was a historically important visit. I went with my mother to Douglas Railway Station to see the departure of what I believe was the last ever steam train from Douglas to Ramsey. We then travelled by bus to Ramsey in time to see the arrival of the last train.

On the same holiday, we were travelling back to Douglas from Ramsey on the Manx Electric Railway. It was an enclosed tram with just a few people on. I must have been showing a great deal of interest in the driver, because I was called forward into the cab to help drive the tram. I recall that we had to stop the tram to remove a branch that was on the line. During the same holiday, I went fishing for one of the few times in my life at Peel off the breakwater. My guide collected some fish for use as bait, we then started to fish and wait and wait. I have a fine photograph 'Fishing at Peel' with a large fish at the end of the line, but only a select few actually knew that it was a photograph of 'Boy and bait' rather than 'Boy and catch at Peel'.

We spent a great deal of the time on this holiday and most others travelling around my bus, train and horse car. I suppose as my Grandfather ( Jimmy Caley, Corporation 1920-60) drove the buses and horse cars that it was in my blood. On of his first jobs many years ago was to grease the lines of the old Douglas Cable Car system in Victoria Street outside what was once Yates Wine Lodge and then Bushy's and soon will become a major office development. In May 1997, workman digging up Broadway found some rails from the former Cable Car system and an eight foot wheel buried under the road. The Cable system started in Victoria Street near the Victoria Clock by the Sea Terminal, went up into Douglas town, and then turned back towards the sea and went down to the prom via Broadway. An example of the Cable Cars can be found today in the garages of the Horse Cars at Derby Castle.

He drove one of the first Double Decker buses off the boat when they arrived on the Isle of Man. In the 1930's, he would be met by his daughter with an enamel jug of tea and some sandwiches at the corner of Allen Street on Bucks Road. She would travel with him to York Road Depot for the tea break and be dropped off at the same place on the way back. In the summer, he would be driving the buses to meet the midnight boat, go home for a few hours to Tynwald Street and then return to work in time to meet the early morning boats at about 6am. One of his final jobs for the Corporation was to wind the large Black & White Clock that was in the office window above the Douglas Horse Car depot at Derby Castle. Now sadly, Granddad's clock has been removed.

A regular trip would be on the Corporation's yellow buses to Port Soderick. The journey involved a trip up to Douglas Head and back, followed by the short trip past the Nunnery out to Port Soderick. The bus in those days would park in the car park for half and hour while its few passengers explored the beach or disposed of all their pennies in the slot machines in the small amusement arcade on the right-hand side of the beach.

The Corporation's yellow buses were always well used on our trips within Douglas to Pulrose, Willaston and the White City which involved a trip the full length of the promenade. Journeys outside of Douglas involved using the red buses and it was a sad day when the 2 companies were combined and the yellow buses were repainted red or covered in advertising. I was pleased to see in the mid 1990's to see that a bus has been repainted in Douglas Corporation Yellow to celebrate the centenary of the council while you can also sometimes see one of the old buses in its original yellow paint scheme travelling between the Steam Railway and Derby Castle.

In 1983, I stayed with family in Willaston and with my new camera took many photographs of the Isle of Man. I made a list of all the buses, trains, trams etc and tried to take a picture of each one. Many of the buses were painted in full advertising for various local firms and a lot of them were fairly old and have now been withdrawn from service. Many photographs were taken on that trip of the sites of the former railway lines to Peel & Ramsey, hoping one day that the economics of running a railway would be different and that the lines would be reopened. It may be a dream, but imagine travelling all over the island by train and making all those trips that you read about in books. The Peel & Ramsey trains racing as they left St Johns, the trip along the north west coastline towards Ramsey. One day maybe ?. I again attended the Tynwald day celebrations and spent the afternoon on a beach just a short distance from Ballaugh village on the north west coast.

In the 1990's I have visited the Isle of Man on many occasions, normally for just a few days having travelled there on the train and boat. We have visited at all times of the year, during the off season the island is a lot quieter, but still as very interesting and relaxing.

In 1995, I visited for the T.T. Motorcycle races for the first time and stayed with friends off Bucks Road, Douglas. We were due to sail from Liverpool at 2pm and the tickets said we should be there for noon. We made good time travelling to Liverpool and arrived around 11am. To our surprise, a few minutes later we were allowed on The Lady of Mann. This was great as we didn't have to wait in a queue as we had expected, we then realised we would now be on the boat for around 7 hours before arriving in Douglas. After being on the boat for many hours, you felt that you should be nearing Douglas when in reality, we were still in Liverpool waiting for the hundreds of motorbikes to load. We arrived in Douglas around 6.30pm and headed out towards the T.T. course for my first view of the bikes in action. A quick trip through Pulrose and we were going down Saddle Road heading for Braddan Church. This is a fairly slow part of the course, put they seemed quick to me. The first person I talked to was from The Netherlands which illustrated the great interest in the T.T. Races all over the world.

Later in the week, I sat on the hedge at Rhencullen just north of Kirk Michael. This spot is famous for photographs of the bikes lifting the front wheel as they exit Kirk Michael. It is a very exciting place to watch from, but if a bike went out of control, you would be in trouble. I believe in later years, it became a prohibited area where spectators could not watch from. It is a hard balancing act to keep the spectators safe and yet still allow them access to the best viewing places. Everybody visiting the TT knows of the dangers and if everybody watched in grandstands in perfect safety, the event would lose some of its viewing appeal.

The TT races are a marvellous experience and yet you are always just a minute away from disaster for the riders. You watch a great days racing and then on the way back to the hotel just hope that you don't hear on Radio TT about some terrible event that has happened during the races. In 1995, every time you heard a helicopter flying past you feared that it was the flying ambulance going to a rider in trouble. But with the increased use of helicopters being used for television coverage, you tell yourself that it is just a television helicopter and hope that you are right.

In 1996, I revisited for the T.T. Races and stayed in the bungalow of a member of the family who had escaped the Island for the T.T. fortnight. Watching the T.T races tends to get you into a certain way of living for the fortnight. There are race days and non race day. Race days involve the knowledge that you have to be up early, visit Shoprite to top up on those vital items that you will need to survive the day, Chicken Legs, Crisps, Sliced Beef, Bread Rolls, mini pork pies, small pots of Rice Pudding, fruit, diet Cola ( to watch the waistline ) and anything else that you fancy when hunting in the supermarket. A supply of papers is always collected in case of delays due to poor weather, although you can always be met with "Sorry the paper aren't in yet" if the plane delivering the papers has been delayed on its approach to Ronaldsway Airport.

You are always on 'bad weather watch' with one ear on Radio TT. You are always hearing rumours about the racing if you can't hear your own radio, you can be half way around Shoprite, when you hear 2 shop assistants saying that they have heard the races are off, you know there was no announcement due to be made, but doubt is then put in your mind. If you hear that an announcement will be made at 9.00am regarding racing for the day, at 9.01 if the races are on, then the bikes and cars set out to their various vantage points.

When at your vantage point, the day settles down into its own pattern. You get parked up and countdown to the time when the roads are closed, watch the one clever man who always thinks he can carry on to the next section on the course before a member of the Manx Constabulary diverts them to a place of his choosing with a firm point of the arm. The Marshall's and police do a tremendous job during the races with a smile on their faces. Next to come in the day, is the start of the radio coverage of the build up to the first race, the rider alterations which you try and scribble down quickly on your racecard, then the raider alterations in French & German where your try and catch the alterations that you missed in English and try and work them out in German. By this time, the first Beef roll of the day will have been despatched. Then the clock clicks down, 5 minutes , 3 minutes, 20 seconds and the riders are off at their 10 second intervals. Then depending on your position on the course, you can have between 10 seconds and maybe 18 minutes to wait for the arrival of the first rider. Radio TT is on all the time and as the riders pass various points (Glen Helen, Ramsey Hairpin & The Grandstand ), their corrected times are given and their positions. As people watch the riders pass by, Joey Dunlop OBE always gets a great cheer. The laps soon go by, positions can change many times, pit stops can make or break a race for a rider, and soon race 1 is all over.

Then the real challenge starts, you have about 45 minutes to get through most of the food that you bought in Shoprite that morning. If you are lucky, you have a Co-pilot in the car who has been working on the Chicken legs throughout the first race. If you are not up to speed, you can be half way through a mini pork pie, have greasy fingers, and then start to panic as you hear the rider alterations will soon be given out on radio TT for race 2. The afternoon follows a similar pattern to the morning, and before you know it, the racing is over for the day. You then wait for the roads to be opened by the 'Roads Open' car being driven around the course. You let the speed merchants leave first and then make your way gently back towards Douglas , maybe stopping on route for some fish and chips. Yes the TT can be hard work and you have to do some serious eating and sometimes at strange times, and also, some visitors I believe get a large thirst caused by the excitement of watching the T.T.Races on the Isle of Man - The Road Racing Capital of the World.

My most recent visit was in February 1997 for just a couple of days. We travelled by train to Heysham Port and then travelled over on the King Orry in interesting weather conditions. We stayed in a small hotel in Broadway. Among the highlights of the brief visit was a trip on the Manx Electric Railway's winter service from Ramsey to Laxey where he had to transfer to a bus for the final leg of the journey to Douglas due to the building work taking place at the Derby Castle Sheds of the MER. While on the MER, we passed the fields north of Laxey with what appear to be a large colony of wild goats, although they may belong to a farm nearby.

If you get the chance to visit the Isle of Man, then take it, you will not be disappointed.