It was most interesting visiting the workshops and storage sheds and seeing what treasures were tucked away there.

Bulleid’s malachite green can look very smart.  This O2 is a fine locomotive and I’m bound to like it – it’s almost an 0-4-4T version of my all time favourite G6 0-6-0T.

In the workshop, carriage restoration continues.  This is helped by the fact that many of the old, and sometimes original, carriages were sold off as sheds and stores and summerhouses during the 1920’s and 1930’s when newer stock arrived.  Some of them have returned home!  Like a number of other railways, replacement running gear comes from old Southern Railway 4-wheeled utility vans – a few of which were used on the island for passenger luggage during late SR and BR days.

Inside the sheds there’s a wonderful selection of old coaching stock….

And Ryde pier trams, old and older….

And, of course, a Terrier….

We did manage to visit a number of other places, and also meet up with two sets of old friends who had retired to the island.  Here are a few pictures of the rest of the stay.

All in all, the IOW is a magic place – just look at the ice cream menu where we stayed.  (It’s bubblegum and candyfloss flavour really – mainly consisting of e-numbers.)  It must have been 15 years since we were last there, and I hope we get back soon.