FEATURE
Saturdays, and when that traffic
started to decline they became
vulnerable. So Dr. Beeching
proposed that all the Island lines
should be shut.
“But what ultimately survived
is still here – Ryde Pier Head to
Shanklin was saved and eventually
electrified.”
When the Cowes line closed in
early 1966 a group of enthusiastic
youngsters decided that something
of the railway heritage on the
Island should be preserved.
Initially the idea was to buy an
engine and some carriages, and the
single locomotive ‘Calbourne’ was
purchased.
The original plan was to have the
rolling stock displayed somewhere,
but then came the opportunity of
actually running a railway. Initially
all the rolling stock was kept at the
Newport station, but that was in
the way of what is now the dual
carriageway.
John continued: “Wisely the IW
county Council had bought up
the track bead, and they agreed it
could all be moved to Havenstreet.
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