The Great Laxey Mines Railway

Currently a charming curio, this tiny railway was constructed for very serious reasons.

Running from the old mine entrance to the massive washing floors below, it allowed transportation of lead ores from the shafts to the yards. Originally hand-operated, then later with trucks pulled by pit ponies, the precursors of the two engines which currently run the rails - Ant and Bee - were delivered in 1877. Sadly these unique, tiny, engines were scrapped in 1935 - six years after the mines closed - and today’s engines are replicas, although some of the original rolling stock remains in use.

It’s a genuinely lovely little setup and forms a valuable link between the Laxey Wheel and the washing floors in the valley (running through the Island’s only remaining railway tunnel), and really helps provide valuable context and a sense of the scale of the whole massive operation which ran at Laxey. As part of a family day out in Laxey, it really shouldn’t be missed.

Especially fun are the Hop-Tu-Naa ghost trains run at the end of October every year. The organisers really go out of their way to make these nights special.

Photo by By Timothy Titus - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=62722117
 

Access

There is wheelchair access to the railway but, unfortunately, none to the trains.

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