the same rate as they received from the IoWR in 1921. The Directors were voted £3,600 out of IoWR funds as compensation for loss of office. The Isle of Wight increased in popularity for holidaymakers and the Portsmouth to Ryde ferry route, owned by the Southern Railway, was the main route to the island. The traffic was highly seasonal; in 1929 two million people used the ferry annually. There were 26 trains per day on the line on the busiest summer days in 1929, and this was increased to three per hour in 1930. By 1936 this was again enhanced to 38 trains running throughout, as well as nine between Ryde and Sandown or Shanklin. The Southern Railway inherited a disparate fleet of eighteen locomotives and rolling stock from the five companies on the island. Early in 1923 two Adams O2 class 0-4-4T locomotives were sent to Eastleigh Works and fitted with Westinghouse brake, and then sent to the Island for working on the Ryde - Ventnor line, for which they were found very suitable. Two more followed the next year. Many of the island passenger coaches were obsolescent; some did not have electric lighting and none had heating. Over the next years 10 to 12 coaches annually were transferred to the Island from the mainland, having been converted to Westinghouse brake operation. On the Ventnor line former London, Chatham and Dover Railway six-wheel coaches were converted to four-wheelers for easier running on the Island's curved track and made up into close coupled four-coach sets. The Southern Railway implemented a number of improvements to the line as well; the section between Brading and Shanklin was doubled; this was brought into use on 23 June 1927. The two single lines of the old IoWR and the IoWCR, ran side by side to Smallbrook, where they diverged. The Southern Railway provided junction points at the point of divergence, which became Smallbrook Junction, and double line working applied from Ryde to that point. In the quieter winter months the signalbox was closed and the signals removed, and the two lines reverted to single line operation. The new junction was commissioned in 1926. It was claimed in 1935 that Smallbrook Junction was the busiest single line junction in the country with 12 trains per hour in summer. Wroxall station was provided with a second platform and passing loop in 1925. In the late 1920s