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Busy Start to Transport Festival
27 July 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.
For the second year running families turned out in their hundreds to enjoy the family friendly spooky atmosphere at Groudle over the weekend. Sea Lion & Otter were in service hauling busy trains from Broomstick Halt where passengers had been met by Mr Pumpkin, a spooky trip through the glen passing some of our cheerful ghoulish friends then arriving at Witches Hollow. As well as the warm and spooktacular atmosphere, families visited Jinny the Witch in her lair to receive a frightfully fun gift, enjoyed sweets from her friends and refreshments including hot chocolate with cream and marsh mellows and spooky doughnuts! Our thanks to not only everyone who visited us, but also the volunteers who helped make the event so special and for the support of Bus Vannin for the provision of the shuttle bus to the railway. Next stop....CHRISTMAS!
The weather eventually played ball for our September Steam Gala as the day started damp and overcast, but by midday the sun was thankfully shining and the railway was very busy with all three steam locomotives in service with two trains passing at the headland loop. Visitors relished the opportunity to see all three locomotives; Sea Lion, Brown Bear and Otter in service together all day operating an intensive service. Sunday services now continuing into October. Our next special event is the Hop Tu Naa Trains at the end of October which is booking only. Tickets available online.
We are lost for words for just how well received our Cliff Top Concerts event was this year. Considering 2024 has not been the best of summers on the Isle of Man weather wise, the sun certainly shone on Groudle for this year's event. It was a day of wall to wall sunshine and people flocked to the cliff tops at Sea Lion Rocks to enjoy the free concerts from some of the island's most talented musicians. This year they were treated to performances from Callum Rowe, Mine's a Shanty, Biskee Brisht, The Reveilettes and our traditional finale group; The Shenannigans Band. A three coach shuttle service was operated with Sea Lion and Brown Bear topping and tailing the service all day.
