Trivia – The smallest harbour had harbour railway?

[ikcdab]

Was there a line into Watchet harbour off the WSR?
Whitby.

Watchet is in there. It had two railways, the GWR and the WSMR.

 

[Sir Felix Pole]

In Devon Teignmouth, Exmouth and Topsham had harbour branches as well as Exeter City Basin. Plymouth, of course had extensive dock working. but not in the 'small' category. Morwellham on the Devon side of the Tamar near Gunnislake had a standard gauge railway from the Devon Great Consols mine.

In Cornwall Hayle, Portreath, plus the already mentioned Bude and Calstock also had harbour branches. Par is still operational, but traffic is from the clay dries, rather than to the dock which is now closed to shipping.

There were also various narrow gauge railways (Devoran, Pentewan) but off-topic.

 

[JGurney]

In Devon Teignmouth, Exmouth and Topsham had harbour branches as well as Exeter City Basin. Plymouth, of course had extensive dock working. but not in the 'small' category.

Totnes Quay, once served by its own horse-worked branch?

 

[Gostav]

Certainly both Portreath and Burghead harbours have basins about two-thirds the size of Newquay harbour and both were rail served. I think the old pier at Findhorn had a siding of the hilariously uneconomic (it closed in 1869 after less than a decade) Findhorn Railway, certainly the line ran to the heads of both piers. If that counts as a harbour railway (doubtful, IMO!) it'll be hard to beat.

This is a really small port and pier, had the railway company really investigated the potential traffic? I doubt very much if the catch from all those fishing boats at Findhorn could fill a railway van.

 

[MadMac]

Kirkcaldy?

 

[Cheshire Scot]

Burntisland

 

[Ashley Hill]

Calstock Quay on the tidal River Tamar must be in with shout. Only reached by a single wagon hoist over 100 feet high from the railway viaduct. Main line wagons were moved to and from the quay by horses.

Calstock Quay was connected via an incline railway to the Callington line a short distance before the present Gunnislake station. Its route can still be traced. The wagon hoist was a later addition and oou by 1933.
The Exe Bight Pier company had a rail served pier between Starcross and Dawlish Warren. Access IIRC was via a wagon turntable from a loop on the mainline.

 

[The exile]

Georeferenced Maps viewer - Map images - National Library of Scotland

Yes, it had, the WSR tracks at the Western Pier and GWR tracks at the Eastern Pier.
I'm curious how much traffic these small harbours can provided.

At one time, relative to general traffic in the area, an awful lot.

 

[32475]

Portsoy had a short branch off the GNSR line down to the quay. Apparently the branch was so short and steep that it only operated one wagon at a time.

 

[Sun Chariot]

I wa

Matchwood military port?

I mulled over that one, as it strays off "harbour" and towards quayside facilities.

On a similar vein:
North Woolwich (GER) had a rail served jetty, over the north bank of the Thames. Jetty was still extant, although fenced off and dilapidated, when Iived a stone's throw from it 2006 to 2012.

 

[Ayrshire Roy]

The wharf at Ardeer ICI Explosives is very small with a standard gauge line on it.
It measures on Google earth about 109m long.

Photographic copy of view showing unloading Raw Materials at factory Wharf | Canmore

canmore.org.uk

For narrow gauge I'd go for the island of Ailsa Craig.
The line runs straight onto a pier roughly measuring 30m at low tide and partly submerged at high tide.
It replaced one that was only 10m long.

Ailsa Craig - RAILSCOT

RailScot, a history of Railways with an emphasis on Scottish Railways. Photographs, maps, news, queries and more.

www.railscot.co.uk

 

[Indigo Soup]

This is a really small port and pier, had the railway company really investigated the potential traffic? I doubt very much if the catch from all those fishing boats at Findhorn could fill a railway van.

Don't forget import and export traffic - that might have filled a second van on a busy day!

It was locally funded, on the principle that Findhorn clearly needed to be rail served as it had historically been the principal port for Forres . It was authorised in 1859, opened in 1860, and in financial difficulty by 1862. It closed in 1869 after the directors refused to subsidise it any further.

 

[John Webb]

.....On a similar vein:
North Woolwich (GER) had a rail served jetty, over the north bank of the Thames. Jetty was still extant, although fenced off and dilapidated, when Iived a stone's throw from it 2006 to 2012.

It was only rail-served in that North Woolwich station was across the road from the pier entrance. This pier was built by the GE as a ferry terminus of a service to the main part of Woolwich on the south side of the river. (The railway reached N Woolwich a couple of years before trains reached the town centre.)
The GE ferry service (one penny per trip) closed in 1908 due to the setting-up in 1889 of the nearby Free Ferry.
The pier was still owned by the GE and then the LNER and used for pleasure excursions. At some point a couple of tug boat companies used it for a number of years until the reduction in freight on the river led to its abandonment.
(I only knew the pier from the late 1940s onwards when the tugs were using it and my mother took me for rides on the (steam-powered) ferry.)

EDIT: Herewith a glimpse of the pier from one of the said steam-powered ferries:

No exact date - late 1950s is all I can say.

 

[Sun Chariot]

Thanks John. That photo seems to show the pier opposite the erstwhile station, as you say.
The jetty I refer to, is/was halfway along Victoria ornamental gardens.

 

[Haywain]

I wonder if Wells next the Sea could be in with a chance? https://maps.nls.uk/view/101167784 shows a siding from the station to the quay at the head of a channel from the N Sea.

Wells definitely had freight traffic, and the channel is to the harbour., still used as such to this day.

This is bit of a case of ‘define a harbour’. What about a tidal wharf with a siding on it, for example?

Harbours are not only man-made - there are many natural harbours as well. I think what you are trying to define is a port.

 

[matchmaker]

Burntisland

At one time Burntisland was the second largest port on the Forth after Leith! Even today it's hardly small

 

[John Webb]

Thanks John. That photo seems to show the pier opposite the erstwhile station, as you say.
The jetty I refer to, is/was halfway along Victoria ornamental gardens.

I can't find any trace on old maps, in my histories of the North Woolwich branch or of Woolwich of such a jetty. (I was a resident of Woolwich 1946-1977)
The Victoria Gardens were started in 1851 by the Eastern Counties Railway as "The Royal Pavilion Gardens" as a means of attracting custom to the line after passenger numbers reduced with the coming of the railway to the main part of Woolwich.
There was a small wharf at the east end of the gardens separated from them by Woolwich Manor Way - now has houses on it.
But perhaps we're getting a little 'off topic'?

 

[Ploughman]

Has anyone mentioned St Michaels Mount Cornwall.
Narrow gauge wagonway.

 

[AndrewE]

Has anyone mentioned St Michaels Mount Cornwall. Narrow gauge wagonway.

Unfortunately the OP said

"When I was reading about Newquay, a very small harbour that can only accommodate brigs and boats, but which once had a standard gauge harbour railway, I wondered if it was the smallest harbour in the UK to have had a harbour railway? At least in standard gauge system."

We haven't actually agreed - or been given a steer on - whether we are looking for the smallest artificially enclosed area of water, or the shortest quay (see Wells-next-the Sea above.)

 

[Ken H]

Does Holyhead count with the railway on the breakwater? Home to class 01 shunters.

Folkestone had tracks on the pier beyond where passenger trains stopped. Never saw a train on them. The long boat trains went off the juice rail and onto the unelectrified tracks.
The tracks on the pier were like tram tracks set in concrete. Enough EMU stayed on the juice rail for it to start back up to Folkestone East.
Memories from when I was a nipper so may not be quite right.

 

[AndrewE]

Does Holyhead count with the railway on the breakwater? Home to class 01 shunters.

Folkestone had tracks on the pier beyond where passenger trains stopped. Never saw a train on them. The long boat trains went off the juice rail and onto the unelectrified tracks.
The tracks on the pier were like tram tracks set in concrete. Enough EMU stayed on the juice rail for it to start back up to Folkestone East.
Memories from when I was a nipper so may not be quite right.

but both of those are really big harbours/ports - well, maybe not Folkestone! The fun in this is finding a tiny place with rails alongside a quay...
[Spoiler alert!]

Spoiler: Riddle of the Sands

I'm reminded of the potential (German) invasion embarcation ports described in

"The Riddle of the Sands!"

 

[Snow1964]

Burry Port, South Wales ?

Eling Wharf (on short branch from Totton) might count

 

[Zamracene749]

A couple that may be in the running.
Port Carlisle, Cumbria was rail served, albeit rather unsuccessfully.
Also Skinningrove, N Yorkshire. This was an unusual one, two standard guage lines worked there. One was a rope worked incline to the jetty that exported pig iron to Scotland.
The other, off topic, was a rare in the UK ZigZag railway from very close to the harbour up to the iron works. I say up, because in a rare case I think, the heavy ironstone loads were sourced from the mines in the little village itself, rather than from incoming ships.
If we are allowing narrow guage and/or tramways, Seaton Sluice in Northumberland was waggonway served to export coal, plus bottles from it's glassworks were sent onto London bound boats via a network of narrow guage tunnels.

 

[Dunfanaghy Rd]

Being connected to a wider rail network probably isn't necessary, since one could imagine a large port complex with significant internal traffic being otherwise disconnected from the main line railway. I don't know if Gibraltar dockyard had an internal rail network, but if so it would qualify here. Of course, such a harbour is also unlikely to be small.

Gibraltar Dockyard did have an internal railway. I once owned a nameplate from 'Calpe', one of the Hunslet tank locos to judge by the picture I once had. No idea of gauge, but the RN were 2'-6" fans.
Pat

 

[Sir Felix Pole]

Gibraltar Dockyard did have an internal railway. I once owned a nameplate from 'Calpe', one of the Hunslet tank locos to judge by the picture I once had. No idea of gauge, but the RN were 2'-6" fans.
Pat

Metre gauge - as was Singapore Dockyard.

 

[Dr Hoo]

Burry Port, South Wales ?

Ealing Wharf (on short branch from Totton) might count

Ironically Eling (not Ealing) Wharf is now part of ABP Southampton’s rather large estate.

I can remember when it had a busy modern aggregates rail terminal in the 1980s.

 

[Ken H]

but both of those are really big harbours/ports - well, maybe not Folkestone! The fun in this is finding a tiny place with rails alongside a quay...
[Spoiler alert!]

Spoiler: Riddle of the Sands

I'm reminded of the potential (German) invasion embarcation ports described in

"The Riddle of the Sands!"

What about Glasson Dock. It had 2 railways to it for a time.

 

[Rescars]

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?

 

[Buzby]

At one time Burntisland was the second largest port on the Forth after Leith! Even today it's hardly small

It’s worth remembering that prior to the opening of the Forth Bridge, ferry-trains (from Leith/Granton?) took passengers across the Firth to connect with and continue their rail journeys northwards.

 

[John Webb]

There is a good model of Burntisland:

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'?)