Qualla: Port St Mary railway station

Port St Mary railway station: Introduction

Wed, 27 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Grantltaylor, CC BY-SA 4.0. A casual visitor stepping off the train at Port St Mary on a summer afternoon could easily be forgiven for thinking they had reached the end of the line. The two-storey station building is one of the grandest on the Isle of Man Railway, a long red-stone affair with a large goods shed beside it, the kind of building that suggests an important destination. But the actual terminus is another mile up the track at Port Erin. Port St Mary's station is bigger than the terminus because, in 1898 when it was built, the village was a more prosperous fishing port than its neighbour, with more daily visitors. The station was built for crowds it now waits patiently for.

Image: Grantltaylor | CC BY-SA 4.0

Port St Mary railway station: A Timber Halt Becomes a Stone Station

Wed, 27 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Dr Neil Clifton, CC BY-SA 2.0. The line opened on 1 August 1874, with Port St Mary as a flag stop on the way to Port Erin. The original station was a small timber structure with a zinc roof, very similar to the surviving small wooden buildings at Santon and the lost ones at Ballasalla and Colby. As the village...

Image: Dr Neil Clifton | CC BY-SA 2.0

Port St Mary railway station: The Goods Shed and Its Strange Career

Wed, 27 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Finn Bjorklid, Public domain. Beside the station, in the same handsome local rubble stone with red brick quoins, stands the 1902 goods shed. It is built to the same plan as the surviving shed at Castletown. Rail-connected doors at either end allow a wagon to be shunted right through; platform-height openings ...

Image: Finn Bjorklid | Public domain

Port St Mary railway station: What Happened to the Building

Wed, 27 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Andrew Abbott, CC BY-SA 2.0. The main station building has had a chequered second life. From 1982 to 1989 an outdoor pursuits company called Campamarina leased the upper floor and converted it into hostel accommodation for their Trailblazers holiday scheme. The booking hall got a servery and a new fireplace;...

Image: Andrew Abbott | CC BY-SA 2.0

Port St Mary railway station: Films, Drama, and a Dance Routine

Wed, 27 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Colin Park, CC BY-SA 2.0. For a small village station, Port St Mary has appeared on screen a surprising number of times. The exterior featured in a night shoot for the Channel Four Cinderella in 2001, with the locomotive Caledonia in her deep blue livery. The BBC drama The Ginger Tree filmed here in 1989....

Image: Colin Park | CC BY-SA 2.0

Port St Mary railway station: Walking from Train to Harbour

Wed, 27 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Bob Jones, CC BY-SA 2.0. Like several of the smaller Manx stations, Port St Mary's is not in the village. It sits half a mile from the heart of Port St Mary, having been built where the railway company chose to put the line rather than where the village would have wished. From the platform you walk down ...

Image: Bob Jones | CC BY-SA 2.0