The Tourist was a train run by the Southern Railway on the railway lines of the Isle of Wight. It was set up in 1933 as an extension of the original East and West Through Train from the previous year. It was the only named train on the Isle of Wight, [1] and one of the very few express trains.
The original East-West train started from Shanklin, then called at Sandown, Merstone, Newport, Carisbrooke and Yarmouth before terminating at Freshwater. [1] A change of locomotive was needed at Newport as the Newport-Freshwater line's bridges could not take the weight of a locomotive other than the A1 "Terrier" class. When extended as The Tourist the train started from Ventnor but a locomotive change was still required. [2] By 1934, it called at Wroxall before Shanklin, but the stops at Merstone and Carisbrooke were removed. As bridges were also strengthened to allow the LSWR O2 Class to haul the train throughout, the train was now much faster, completing the full journey in 1 hour and 17 minutes. [3]
The train was withdrawn for the duration of World War II, but resumed immediately on VE Day. [4] However, by September 1953 the line from Newport to Yarmouth and Freshwater was closed, spelling the end for The Tourist.
The Island Line is a railway line on the Isle of Wight which runs along the island's east coast and links Ryde Pier Head with Shanklin. Trains connect at Ryde Pier Head with passenger ferries to Portsmouth Harbour, and these ferries in turn connect with the rest of the National Rail network via the Portsmouth Direct Line. The line also connects to the Isle of Wight Steam Railway, a heritage railway, at Smallbrook Junction. For much of its length the line runs alongside the A3055, criss-crossing this road by means of the Ryde Tunnel and bridges at Rowborough, Morton Common, Lake Hill and Littlestairs.
The Isle of Wight Steam Railway is a heritage railway on the Isle of Wight. The railway passes through 5+1⁄2 miles (9 km) of countryside from Smallbrook Junction to Wootton station, passing through the small village of Havenstreet, where the line has a station, headquarters and a depot. At Smallbrook Junction, the steam railway connects with the Island Line.
The Isle of Wight Central Railway (IoWCR) was a railway company on the Isle of Wight, United Kingdom. It was formed in 1887 by the merging of three earlier railways, the Cowes and Newport Railway, the Ryde and Newport Railway and the Isle of Wight Railway,.
The Isle of Wight Railway was a railway company on the Isle of Wight, United Kingdom; it operated 14 miles 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.
Carisbrooke is a village on the south-western outskirts of Newport, in the civil parish of Newport and Carisbrooke, Isle of Wight, England. It is best known as the site of Carisbrooke Castle. It also has a medieval parish church, St Mary's Church, which began as part of a Benedictine priory established by French monks c. 1150. The priory was dissolved by King Henry V of England in 1415, during the Hundred Years' War. In 1907, the church was restored. It has a 14th-century tower rising in five stages with a turret at one corner and a battlemented and pinnacled crown.
Sandown railway station is a railway station serving Sandown on the Isle of Wight, England. It is located on the Island Line from Ryde to Shanklin.
Merstone is a hamlet on the Isle of Wight. It is home to Merston Manor, built in 1605 in the Jacobean style by Edward Cheeke, and rebuilt in the Victorian era. Merston Manor was first mentioned in the Domesday Book, and the present structure is arguably the oldest brick house on the Island. Prior to the Norman Conquest, Merston Manor was owned by the Brictuin family. The manor now belongs to the Crofts family. According to the Post Office the population of the hamlet was at the 2011 Census included in the civil parish of Arreton.
St Lawrence railway station is a former railway station in the village of St Lawrence on the Isle of Wight.
The Ventnor West Branch was the final addition to the Isle of Wight railway network, and used an earlier scheme to run a railway from Shanklin to the railwayless south-west part of the island.
Merstone railway station, was an intermediate station situated on the edge of Merstone village on the line from Newport to Sandown incorporated by the Isle of Wight Railway in 1868
Newport railway station was established in 1862 with the opening of the Cowes and Newport Railway. It was enlarged in December 1875 when the lines to Ryde and Ventnor were opened. The station was also used by the Freshwater, Yarmouth and Newport Railway from its opening in 1888 until 1913, when that company opened its own station nearby. Upon the formation of the Southern Railway in 1923 reverted to using this station. The station was closed by British Railways in 1966. It was then used as a base for the Wight Locomotive Society until January 1971, when it was demolished.
The Freshwater, Yarmouth and Newport Railway was a railway line on the Isle of Wight, United Kingdom, connecting Freshwater and Yarmouth to Newport. It was intended to connect the thinly populated west of the island, and it opened in 1889. At Newport it relied on the existing Isle of Wight Central Railway's station, but trains entering it had to shunt back from the junction. The IoWCR worked the line until 1913.
Freshwater railway station was the westerly terminus and largest station of the Freshwater, Yarmouth and Newport Railway, the platform being extended to accommodate the "Tourist Train", a non-stop service from Ventnor.
There are several modes of Transport on the Isle of Wight, an island in the English Channel.
There once existed a 55+1⁄2-mile (89.3 km) network of railway lines on the Isle of Wight, which operated both as a self-contained railway network, and as links to ferry services between the island and the South coast of Great Britain. The routes were opened by several companies between 1862 and 1901 and modernised after The Grouping in the 1920s. Most of them were permanently closed between 1952 and 1966, whilst the 8+1⁄2-mile-long (13.7 km) Island Line was temporarily closed in 1966 and rebuilt for electric train services, introduced in 1967. Replacement trains were introduced in 1990, and again in 2021 along with a major renewal of the line. A further 5+1⁄2 miles (8.9 km) have reopened as a heritage line known as the Isle of Wight Steam Railway and there have been several proposals to expand the network further since the 1960s, either with conventional heavy rail or by conversion to light rail.
W8 Freshwater is a Stroudley A1X Terrier class 0-6-0T steam locomotive, which is based at the Isle of Wight Steam Railway.