and many other changes. All of the lines on the Isle of Wight were planned to be closed, but vigorous local protest secured the retention of the Ryde to Shanklin section of the former Isle of Wight Railway, despite controversy that the TUCC inquiry stated that closing the Ryde to Ventnor line would cause severe hardship but British Rail then suddenly proposed curtailing the line at Shanklin, which was accepted by the Minister of Transport, Barbara Castle The southern extremity, from Shanklin to Ventnor, closed on 18 April 1966. Much of the trackbed survives but it has been severed at the Shanklin end and Ventnor station has become an industrial estate. The former IoWCR line from Smallbrook Junction to Newport closed on 21 February 1966, although goods trains continued to run as required for a while. On 17 September 1966 regular steam train operation at Ryde Pier Head ceased, the service being temporarily cut back to Esplanade. Electrification Up to this time the island's train services were exclusively steam operated, and thought had been given to how the short residue of the island network would be run. The line was closed between 1 January and 19 March 1967 for completion of third-rail electrification and raising of the track at stations so that platform step heights conformed to the tube stock. The third rail electrification was at 630v dc, and power was taken from the 33kV public supply through three new substations. Because of the low headroom in the Ryde tunnel, no British Railways electric train stock was suitable, and 43 second hand tube cars were purchased from London Transport. Goods traffic would not be conveyed. 19 of the UCC and MCCW cars dated from 1927 to 1934, 14 Cammell-Laird cars were from 1927 and 10 MCWF cars were from 1925. All were from the Piccadilly and Northern lines, although some had run on the Northern City Line. They were altered to have running rail traction current return instead of fourth rail. They were made up into four-car sets (Motor – trailer – trailer – motor) and three-car sets (control trailer – trailer – motor). The basic train service was half-hourly, but the peak service was five trains an hour. This frequency was sufficient to handle the pier tramway system's traffic, and that was discontinued from January 1969. Mitchell and Smith remark that at Brading, "the 13 elegant swan-neck gas lamps