Trivia – The smallest harbour had harbour railway?

[Sun Chariot]

(By the way, is it pronounced 'Burnt-island' or 'Burn-tis-land'?)

Lovely model.
Pronounced Burnt Island

 

[D6130]

There is a good model of Burntisland:
View attachment 179369
Regrettably I can't find the Exhibition Catalogue to know who built it!

(By the way, is it pronounced 'Burnt-island' or 'Burn-tis-land'?)

'Burnt-island'.

 

[Tony73E]

Faversham Creek branch. Mile long branch leading to quayside sidings.

 

[John Webb]

Lovely model.
Pronounced Burnt Island

'Burnt-island'.

Thanks!

 

[Mcr Warrior]

If we are allowing narrow gauge tramways, there must have been a large number of short routes linking coastal quarries to a convenient jetty. Kippford in South West Scotland would be one such example. If short jetties count, how about Wigan Pier?

We're not, are we? Didn't the OP specify standard gauge systems?

 

[Buzby]

By the way, is it pronounced 'Burnt-island' or 'Burn-tis-land'?)

The former!

 

[midwales]

I remember trains going to Bude canal basin/ harbour when I was a boy in the late 50s.

 

[matchmaker]

Lovely model.
Pronounced Burnt Island

It's called Burntisland 1883 and is Protofour/Scalefour (4mm scale, 18.83mm gauge).

Heres a link to it Burntisland

It is a very nice model - I've seen it at a couple of exhibitions. Won best layout and beat our club layout into second place at Model Rail 2023!

 

[AndrewE]

I remember trains going to Bude canal basin/ harbour when I was a boy in the late 50s.

and shows up very nicely on the National Library of Scotland archived maps (e.g. https://maps.nls.uk/view/101437835)
A nice memory to have!
I am afraid that having lived inland all my life and only seen Torquay, Brixham and Kingsbridge on holidays I can't remember ever seeing freight wagons at a very small port. I just remember timber being unloaded straight into the wood yards at at Totnes...

 

[Brassick]

Looking at the first and second post, the writers seem to think that the Newquay harbour railway was an isolated system, infact it was connected to the local branch lines by an underground cable incline.

 

[Gloster]

Looking at the first and second post, the writers seem to think that the Newquay harbour railway was an isolated system, infact it was connected to the local branch lines by an underground cable incline.

Newquay had an incline of just over 100 yards up from the quay to town level, 85 yards of which were in tunnel. The incline opened in 1874 and the whole line closed in 1926.

Source: Cooke’s Diagrams, Section 11.

 

[daodao]

If we are allowing narrow gauge tramways, there must have been a large number of short routes linking coastal quarries to a convenient jetty. Kippford in South West Scotland would be one such example. If short jetties count, how about Wigan Pier?

Porthgain would be an example of an isolated narrow gauge railway linking a quarry to a tiny harbour.

 

[AndrewE]

and nice and quirky as Newquay was (and fascinating as Burntisland is too) neither can possibly be anywhere near "the smallest harbour to have had a harbour railway."

It's going to be somewhere up a small creek, or a tiny river-mouth or cove with a harbour wall that had a railway to it.