Military requirements led to a large number of special trains being run, some of them in the small hours of the morning, which led to some minor mishaps. Foxdale passenger services ceased in 1940, but the branch was heavily used for spoil trains during the construction of Jurby and Ronaldsway aerodromes. Traffic levels remained very high in the late 1940s due to rationing, but the 1948 Howden Report foresaw the eventual closure of both the Ramsey and Peel lines, with goods services transferred to road transport. The brief post-war resurgence of the Manx tourist industry kept the trains well filled into the mid-1950s, and postponed the day when significant economies and modernisation would be required. From 1955 onwards usage declined sharply; a million passengers were carried for the last time in 1957. By then the high season schedule had been reduced to seven round trips to Port Erin, and five each on the Peel and Ramsey lines. However individual trains, such as the boat trains, and the 10:35 to Port Erin could load very heavily: 9 carriages and almost 500 passengers on a single train was common in high season. The last re-boilering before the 1965 closure took place in 1959; by then the active fleet had been reduced to 11 locomotives from the 16 of 1939 by the withdrawal of No.s 7, 2, 9, 4, and 3. Locos 1, 6, 13, 14 and 16 were known to have limited lives left on their existing boilers, so the future looked grim. Although the railway was still intensively used in summer, winter train services had been reduced to morning and afternoon round trips to Port Erin and Peel, and a solitary working to Ramsey. These trains operated mainly for parcels traffic, and were run at a considerable loss. Winter trains usually consisted of a locomotive and one or two carriages. The St John's - Peel section closed for the winter of 1960, reopening the following Easter, whilst in 1961-65 the St John's to Ramsey service was withdrawn for the winter months, after the long-established Kirk Michael to Ramsey school trains were replaced by buses. From 1962 the ex-County Donegal railcars handled most of the winter service; they were used between Douglas and Peel in the summer. The last two summer timetables reflect the tourism of the mid-1960s. These show six round trips on the Port Erin line, three to five on the Peel line, and two to Ramsey. Except for the Port Erin-Douglas boat train July and August, all trains operated between 09:30 and 17:30: quite a contrast with the 15 or 16 hours-a-day operation of the 1920s and 1930s.