Union Mills railway station

Early origins

The station was established as the first official stopping place for trains on the line when it opened in 1873. The village at that time was an important trading point previously served only by horse and cart from the capital of Douglas. It was the arrival of the railway that saw the small hamlet expand over several years to become a larger village.

Layout & plan

from opening, it boasted a long winding full-height platform on the "up" side serviced trains westward bound; originally fitted with minimal passenger facilities, including a diminutive timber sentry box for the pointsman at the easterly end, it was later fitted with a long passing loop for trains and a variety of cattle pens and sidings, feeding off the westward platform, though in an easterly direction. Being a largely exposed area when established, the planting of a variety of plants (notably rhododendrons) in the earliest years of the railway meant that it was a largely shaded area. It lies beneath the main road and was accessed via a set of steps, to a wooden station building and platform area. The station closed in 1961 but was reopened in 1967 and was finally closed with the railway in 1968.

Station buildings

The timber station building here was the only one of its kind on the railway and was erected in 1892 at the westerly end of the station close to the entrance. It had a sloping roof with passenger shelter and basic staff facilities. It fell out of use after the second world war when the next station at Crosby was favoured for the passing of services, although remained in periodic use until the closure of the railway. It was demolished in 1974 at the same time as the rails and sleepers were lifted from the site, leaving only the platform in situ. A wooden sentry box protected the station's easterly end in the earliest years of the railway.

Station gardens

The station gardens were well-known locally for their beautiful displays that were tended by the station master and his staff. The station was often awarded the prize for best-kept station on the entire network and was featured in many popular picture postcards of the era.

Railway accidents

In 1925 a Douglas-bound train failed to collect the guard/brakesman upon setting off from Union Mills resulting the train, hauled by No. 3 Pender of 1873, having insufficient braking capability upon arrival at the terminus; it crashed through the buffer stops at Douglas and the fireman was killed. This was the most notable accident in the railway's history. Long-term station master Mr. Hogg was also killed at the station when he fell between two carriages as a train pulled away from the station. In 1967 it was the site of a head-on collision between two trains, this largely being put down to the inexperience of the new operator of the railway, Lord Ailsa; locomotives No. 10 G.H. Wood and No. 5 Mona were damaged by the incident, No. 10 receiving buckled main frames.

Locale & area

On the northerly side of the station runs the River Dhoo and the station had a long passing loop and at one time a goods siding. When the railway closed the station building was demolished and the tracks lifted but the platform remains in place, as do the words of the station name, picked out in white spar stones along the edge of what was the down line, and a Legs of Mann in the embankment at the exit to the station. At the top of the station steps lay the Railway Inn which remains open today. When the railway arrived it had been called The Grapes but it was soon changed to the Railway Inn, a title it retains today, being a popular vantage point for viewing the T.T. races. The village's general store (now a Spar shop) was at one time home to the Bee Gees, and a blue plaques on the wall denotes this, installed in 2001. Close to the station site there is a Methodist church and within walking distance are two campsites, one at Glenlough Farm and also at Union Mills Football Club which today is close to the new Nobles Hospital, having relocated from the village in 1999.

Filming usage

In 1946 the opening scenes of the film I See a Dark Stranger were filmed in and around the station which doubled for a station in Ireland; the scene saw one of the lead characters boarding a train here, being double-headed by locomotives No. 12 Hutchinson and No. 13 Kissack, but of which survive in service today. Other locations on the island were also used for filming. Other notable filming that took place here includes the work of renowned railway photographer Ivo Peters who visited the island to records its transport networks in the 1950s and 1960s.

Church services

For many years an open air church service took place at the nearby Braddan Church, which was served by its own Sundays-only request stop. Heavy trains from Douglas served these enormously popular religious ceremonies until the final years of the railway, and trains would drop off their passengers at Kirk Braddan before carrying on to Union Mills so that locomotives could re-position to the opposite end of their trains before drawing forward to collect returning passengers. With twelve coach trains not unheard of for these services, this is one of the reasons the passing loop at the station is so long. The practice of dedicated church trains was still carried out until the summer of 1968 which proved to be the Peel Line's final year of operation.

Rail Trail

In 1990 the Douglas-Peel trackbed was designated as the Rail Trail and much work undertaken to improve the station underfoot. It was at this time that the breakdown crane belonging to the railway was placed on permanent display at the station, and a section of track installed for it to sit on; the crane had been built by the Birmingham-based company of Richard C. Gibbins and delivedred new to the railway in 1893, being stored at various locations prior to its removal to Union Mills in 1991 where it still remains today.