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.

 

[D Mylchreest]

Swanage had a harbour railway/tramway. It was isolated from the LSWR but only by a few hundred yards

 

[Ashley Hill]

Exmouth,Topsham and Teignmouth quays were all rail served.

 

[Wilts Wanderer]

Swanage had a harbour railway/tramway. It was isolated from the LSWR but only by a few hundred yards

Funnily enough I was just about to mention this, as I’m currently staying approx 10m from its route! Originally a standard gauge tramway built to transport cut stone about 400yds along the seafront to the original pier for loading onto boats. Later converted to 2ft gauge when the replacement pier was constructed. Neither iteration was particularly heavily used as the old hand-loading methods remained in regular use due to local tradition. Once the LSWR reached Swanage in 1885 the boat traffic ceased and that was that.

 

[D Mylchreest]

Funnily enough I was just about to mention this, as I’m currently staying approx 10m from its route! Originally a standard gauge tramway built to transport cut stone about 400yds along the seafront to the original pier for loading onto boats. Later converted to 2ft gauge when the replacement pier was constructed. Neither iteration was particularly heavily used as the old hand-loading methods remained in regular use due to local tradition. Once the LSWR reached Swanage in 1885 the boat traffic ceased and that was that.

I can't find any reference to the 'stone tramway' being connected to the pier. It was connected, most certainly to the Swanage branch via the Swanage station goods yard, but the harbour tramway seems to (in my references at least) to have gone from the fish market to the pier head. There is still some track embedded in the harbour.
This map might be too late of course https://maps.nls.uk/view/106012506

 

[Southsider]

The former!

And perhaps best known nowadays for its junior football team, Burntisland Shipyard.

 

[Wilts Wanderer]

I can't find any reference to the 'stone tramway' being connected to the pier. It was connected, most certainly to the Swanage branch via the Swanage station goods yard, but the harbour tramway seems to (in my references at least) to have gone from the fish market to the pier head. There is still some track embedded in the harbour.
This map might be too late of course https://maps.nls.uk/view/106012506

The Swanage Museum links it to the pier and particularly the gauge change when the current pier was constructed to replace the old. Also says that the original intention was to run all the way to Langton Matravers but was stymied by local landowners.

 

[MisterSheeps]

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

There was a branch from Lancaster Castle (LNW) to Glasson. What was the other railway?
Glasson is an enclosed (locks) basin, sea access and transhipment to the Lancaster Canal. Tarleton and Preston were similar canal / rail facilities,the former for coastal shipping.
While in the north west, Morecambe stone jetty (ships to Ireland for a while), Ulverston ship canal branch (mostly canalside industries), Whitehaven were small. Did Parton and Harrington have harbours? Other places such as Gunness Wharf (tidal Trent), still used (?) for rail transported steel export.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

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

There was a branch from Lancaster Castle (LNW) to Glasson. What was the other railway?

Suppose the original railway company (pre the 1923 grouping) would have been the 'London and North West Railway' and the other one (post 1923) the 'London, Midland and Scottish Railway'. Still using the same bit of branch line track, though!

 

[Ken H]

Suppose the original railway company (pre the 1923 grouping) would have been the 'London and North West Railway' and the other one (post 1923) the 'London, Midland and Scottish Railway'. Still using the same bit of branch line track, though!

Sorry. I may have misread the map confusing the canal with a railway