Isle of Man Railway Isle of Man Railway The Isle of Man Railway (IMR) () is a narrow gauge steam-operated railway connecting Douglas with Castletown and Port Erin. The line is narrow gauge and long. It is the remainder of what was a much larger network (over ) that also served the western town of Peel, the northern town of Ramsey and the small mining village of Foxdale. Now in government ownership, it uses original rolling stock and locomotives and there are few concessions to modernity. The line from Douglas to Port Erin is the last remaining line of the former Isle of Man
History of the Isle of Man possession of the Scottish and then the English crowns. Since 1866, the Isle of Man has been a Crown Dependency and has democratic self-government. The Isle of Man effectively became an island around 8,500 years ago at around the time when rising sea levels caused by the melting glaciers cut Mesolithic Britain off from continental Europe for the last time. A land bridge had earlier existed between the Isle of Man and Cumbria, but the location and opening of the land bridge remain poorly understood. The earliest traces of people on the Isle of Man date back to the Mesolithic