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Busy Start to Transport Festival
Jul 27, 2023
Manx Heritage Transport Festival - Busiest in living memory
The crowds have certainly made their presence known across the island at this year's Heritage Transport Festival celebrating the Year of the Railways.
The Island's railways have been running to capacity since the festival began last Sunday and Groudle is no exception.
For our Wednesday running from 11am to 9pm, we seen the busiest standard running day on record with Otter and Polar Bear in constant service will full trains.
There is more to come:
Saturday 29th July
11am to 4:30pm - Victorian Day: The rare chance to experience Sea Lion in service with her original Victorian rake of coaches.
Sunday 30th July
11am to 4:30pm - GALA DAY
- Everything that moves will be out. Up to 7 locomotives in service from steam to diesel and electric.
Along with our popular Cliff Top Tea rooms proving popular, our NEW for 2023 souvenir shops at Lhen Coan has proved popular with its range of Groudle clothing and also the largest collection of railway books and ephemera you will find on the Isle of Man, including a lot of rare second hand titles. So make sure you pay it a visit.
The glorious sunshine of Easter Sunday 2024 was a perfect accompaniment to the fun and frollicks of the popular Easter Bunny trains at Groudle. Sea Lion and Brown Bear were both performing an intensive top and tail service across both Easter Sunday and Monday transporting large numbers of families from the brightly decorated and lively Lhen Coan out onto the cliff tops to see the Easter Bunny and receive chocolate eggs in the vibrant and musical surroundings of Sea Lion Rocks. Also whilst on the trip visitors kept their eyes peeled for the Easter Egg Hunt to spot the eggs that the Bunny had left behind in order to enter the draw to win a voucher to spend at the Ocean Views Bar and Grill, plus a giant Easter Bunny Teddy and a year's family pass to the railway. A memorable time was had by all and if you visited with your family, we hope you made some wonderful memories and had a fun experience. The railway reopens for the summer season on Sunday 5th May.
The initial terminus of the Santa Trains - the starting point of the restoration - The Headland! Santa's Grotto was located in the temporary wooden engine shed seen on the right in the first image. Plus images of the early years of the Santa Trains in the 1980s. Things have come a long way! 2023 proved to be another hugely successful festive season at the railway with record bookings for our Santa Trains and Boxing Day Mince Pie trains as they continue to grow in popularity. Over the various operating days all three steam locomotives; Sea Lion, Brown Bear and Otter were in service operating intensive shuttle services. We continue to improve the events bit by bit every year from reducing queing with the ticketing system, to improvements in decorations, a newly refurbished grotto for our guest from the North Pole and the new addition of the snowmen photo seat nicknamed 'Boris & Doris!' 2023 was also the 40th anniversary of the Santa Trains, the first services being a simple affair operated only a year after the restoration of the railway had been started in 1982, primarily as a much needed fundraiser. Since then they have continued to grow in popularity and also in term of complexity and standards.
Our first ever Not So Scary Hop tu Naa trains have proved a big hit with families. Ran over the weekend of 28th and 29th September, the trains were a new addition to our special event calendar as Jinny the Witch welcomed children (young and old) to her lair. Fortunately for all the boys and girls, Jinny is a kind witch and her assistants were on hand to give out plenty of sweets. With passengers met by a giant pumpkin, they boarded the train bound for Witches Hollow, passing some friendly ghosts hanging out trackside. Once at the terminus, they met Jinny and her assistants, had some hot chocolate (with whipped cream and marshmallows) and headed off on the train back down into the glen. Railway chairman Trevor Nall said that the railway decided to run the trains when they thought that younger children weren’t being catered for during Hop tu Naa. He said: ‘We picked the non-scary trains hoping that would be an attraction and I think judging by the amount of people we’ve managed to attract, it appears to be working well and it certainly seems to be popular.’ Trevor said that by booking people into 15 minute slots, the railway had managed to ensure no-one was waiting for too long, while running the trains at night was a special treat for the volunteers as they never normally get to operate in the dark. Looking ahead, Trevor confirmed the trains will be back next year, but with some new additions, saying ‘we will certainly improve that we’ve noticed that maybe nobody else does’. In the meantime, Groudle Glen Railway will be back in operation this winter with the Santa Trains and the ever popular Mince Pie Trains. For a video from the event and a full story, check out the Gef story here.
