The rolling stock used on the Isle of Man Railway today is entirely original although, from an original total of 75 carriages, the number serviceable dropped as low as 14, but this total is once again increasing as a result of recent rebuilds The 3 ft (914 mm) gauge railway was provided with a variety of stock from different manufacturers over its time, and types of coach were categorised according to a lettering system, with the original four-wheeled coaches being of A, B, C and D types, and so on. The F prefix encompassed all bogie vehicles including conversions from the A-D series. Letters G-M denoted goods stock. N referred to ex-Manx Northern Railway 6 wheel carriages. The types of stock can be summarised as follows:-
Four-Wheelers (1873-1874)
Four-wheeled carriages supplied for the opening of the line to Peel in 1873; these were close-coupled in pairs from the late 1880s. Each class of carriage had a different internal layout. "A" class carriages were long and the remainder shorter. Class "A" consisted of twelve first class carriages - eleven three-compartment carriages and one saloon. The "B" class consisted of 24 three-compartment third class carriages open above the seat backs. The "C" class (14 built) had two third class compartments and a brake compartment - one coach was later converted to a saloon. The "D" class consisted of a pair of composites arranged 3/1/3, the first class compartment being wider at the expense of the third class passengers. All these were later converted into bogie carriages by mounting pairs of bodies on bogie underframes supplied by the Metropolitan Carriage & Wagon Co. They became known as the "pairs" coaches and were later renumbered into the F.50-F.75 series, see below. Today only C.1 survives in its original form, albeit only for display purposes.
"Small F" Carriages (1876-1896)
The initial batch were supplied by Brown Marshalls and became known as the "Small Fs" as they are noticeably smaller in size than the later vehicles being 35 feet long and 9'6" from rail to roof; all had wooden frames and had the frames concealed by the lower panelling of the carriage bodies, though at various periods where the frames would normally show was indicated with a broad black stripe at the bottom of the lower panels to match later carriages, this feature was reinstated in 2013. Coaches listed with "Guard" in the layout above had a handbrake fitted in a locking housing in one of the end compartments. In addition to the handbrake a lookout window was cut in the end of carriage. This made it possible for a brakeman to ride in this compartment and provide additional braking on heavier trains in the days before continuous vacuum brake. F.19 and F.20 were the first two "half luggage vans" delivered to the railway, half of the carriage being occupied with three third class compartments and the other half by a luggage compartment complete with guard's look-out duckets.
The Empress Vans (1897)
Two of these identical vehicles were supplied to the railway in 1897 and became known as the Empress Vans to acknowledge the fact that the year of delivery was Queen Victoria's jubilee year. These are the same length as the passenger vehicles but are entirely closed with no windows, but they have guard's lookout duckets attached; they were purchased for the railway's Luggage In Advance service on the South Line whereby passengers' luggage was transported to its destination ahead of them and was already at their hotels on arrival, usually Port Erin or Port St. Mary; their busy careers also saw them in use as an ambulance train in conjunction with the T.T. and Manx Grand Prix races held annually on the island until the closure of the Peel and Ramsey lines in 1968. They were stored for a number of years outdoors and were also used by Campamarina at Castletown Station fitted with bunk beds 1979-1986. Despite poor condition both remain on the railway, having last been used in the 1992. The original F.27 was stripped to form the basis of a replica kitchen for the dining train in 2012, only the underframes surviving today. F.28 remains stored while the replica (also F.27) is used regularly on the dining services.
The Saloons / Corridors (1905)