Trivia: Quay side/ Harbour stations/ terminuses

[mitchf]

Tyne Commission Quay

 

[hermit]

Whilst in Galloway, don't forget Garlieston, at the end of a branch on the Wigtonshire Railway. IIRC it was closed to passengers c1900, but the branch stayed open for freight. The station was just across a road from the harbour, but the tracks crossed the road to serve sidings on the quay.

D L Smith tells of occasional special excursions being run from Campbeltown to the Isle of Man, with a steamer working from Campbeltown (on the Kintyre peninsular) to Straraer, then a train to Garlieston (reversing at Newton Stewart) followed by another steamer to IoM. An especially challenging operation, given the tidal nature of Garlieston harbour. This working of a passenger train from one harbour station to another must have been pretty unusual. Were there any other examples I wonder?

Campbeltown is another to add to the OPs list - the terminus (not really a station) of the Campbeltown and Machrihanish Light Railway was next to the harbour.

 

[duffield]

Wigan Pier . I'll get mi' coat....

I was there six weeks ago, and it's gone posh.

 

[SWTCommuter]

Burnham-on-Sea. A track led from the station on to a stone jetty.

https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=17.0&lat=51.23423&lon=-3.00021&layers=168&b=1

The station closed in 1951 but the remains of the jetty still exist
Google streetview

 

[Bevan Price]

Warrington Bank Quay?

No easy direct access from the station to the river.
And I don't think that part of the Mersey has been considered navigable since the Ship Canal was opened.

 

[Jan Mayen]

Should Richboro Port be included?

 

[racyrich]

Around my way we have Tollesbury Pier, already mentioned, Blackwall and Thames Haven. Maldon East was planned to be on a quayside but the quay was never built.

 

[Bevan Price]

Monk's Ferry (Birkenhead). Became disused after Woodside opened.

And a few that were (probably) freight only - but all had connections to the "main line":-
Foryd (Rhyl); Mostyn Quay; Greenfield Quay (Holywell) - early casualty due to silting of River Dee estuary; Connah's Quay; Hawarden Bridge; Saltney Stage (Chester) - another early closure; Deganwy Pier; Penmaenmawr; Port Penryn; Caernarfon Slate Quay.

(For example, see
https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=16.0&lat=53.29319&lon=-3.83504&layers=6&b=1

 

[Western Sunset]

Lots of lines to a quay that didn't have stations, eg Poole Quay, Totnes Quay...

 

[Rescars]

Have we included the much lamented Weymouth Quay on the list yet?

 

[D6130]

Whilst in Galloway, don't forget Garlieston, at the end of a branch on the Wigtonshire Railway. IIRC it was closed to passengers c1900, but the branch stayed open for freight. The station was just across a road from the harbour, but the tracks crossed the road to serve sidings on the quay.

D L Smith tells of occasional special excursions being run from Campbeltown to the Isle of Man, with a steamer working from Campbeltown (on the Kintyre peninsular) to Straraer, then a train to Garlieston (reversing at Newton Stewart) followed by another steamer to IoM. An especially challenging operation, given the tidal nature of Garlieston harbour. This working of a passenger train from one harbour station to another must have been pretty unusual. Were there any other examples I wonder?

That reminds me that the Campbeltown terminus of the Campbeltown and Machrihanish narrow gauge railway was alongside the harbour....although I believe that the Clyde steamers and ferries to Ballycastle in Ireland departed from berths a little further round the bay.

Another short-lived narrow gauge line, the West Highland Light Railway, connected Torosay Castle on the Isle of Mull with the steamer pier at Craignure.

 

[paul1609]

Littlehampton for the Southern Railway ferry to Honfleur in the 19 th century which moved to Newhaven when the new harbour there was completed and eventually became the Ñewhaven to Dieppe Ferry.

 

[NER1621]

Some NER examples:
Hull Riverside (as distinct from the MSLR’s Corporation Pier);
Whitby Town was directly on the harbourside before infilling of some of the docks;
Amble (Warkworth Harbour);
Seaham Harbour

Also
Eyemouth (NBR)

And not forgetting the grand-daddies of them all:
Stockton (original)
Port Darlington (original)
Whitstable Harbour

 

[Lloyds siding]

Holyhead.

It's only a few years since I made a trip on MV Balmoral from Liverpool to Caernarfon. We tied up at a quay close to the site of the former railway station.

Monk's Ferry (Birkenhead). Became disused after Woodside opened.

And a few that were (probably) freight only - but all had connections to the "main line":-
Foryd (Rhyl); Mostyn Quay; Greenfield Quay (Holywell) - early casualty due to silting of River Dee estuary; Connah's Quay; Hawarden Bridge; Saltney Stage (Chester) - another early closure; Deganwy Pier; Penmaenmawr; Port Penryn; Caernarfon Slate Quay.

(For example, see
https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=16.0&lat=53.29319&lon=-3.83504&layers=6&b=1

Mostyn had a ferry service to Dublin between 2001 and 2004 and briefly in 2020, but the station is long closed.

 

[Sun Chariot]

Have we included the much lamented Weymouth Quay on the list yet?

Yes, it's in the OP's first post.

 

[Taunton]

This working of a passenger train from one harbour station to another must have been pretty unusual. Were there any other examples I wonder?

There was quite a significant flow, probably mostly in the 1900s-1920s era, of emigrants from Eastern Europe who came by ship from Continental ports to Hull (and likely Goole as well), then by train across to Liverpool, for the ships to the USA and Canada. I read the Lancashire & Yorkshire had much of the traffic, and provided special trains but, alas, their worst, wooden-seated stock for it. The L&Y's own shipping line ran from Goole to a range of European ports. There were surprisingly few direct ships from mainland ports in the northern North Sea and the Baltic to North America. There is a statue to such an emigrant family group on the waterfront at Liverpool.

 

[billh]

Dukinfield Dog Lane Station for passenger boats to Marple and Macclesfield. There was a hotel near the much later Marple Wharf Junction for rest and recuperation for the journey

 

[matchmaker]

Ardrossan had two - Winton Pier and Montgomery Pier. One GSWR, one Caley - can't remember which was which!

 

[D6130]

Ardrossan had two - Winton Pier and Montgomery Pier. One GSWR, one Caley - can't remember which was which!

Winston Pier - approximating to the current Ardrossan Harbour station - was G&SWR and Montgomerie Pier was Caley....both became LMS After the 1923 grouping of course.

 

[Cheshire Scot]

Don't think Balloch Pier has been mentioned yet.

Also worthy of note is the old Fort William station was adjacent to the town's pier.

The sidings at Mallaig extended onto the Pier and likewise Oban had sidings adjacent to the quayside.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

The sidings at Mallaig extended onto the Pier and likewise Oban had sidings adjacent to the quayside.

As they also did, beyond Harwich Town station on the Essex coast.

Map Finder - with Outlines - National Library of Scotland

 

[40C]

Immingham Eastern Jetty used by boat trains until closed in 1939.

Immingham Dock closed 1969.

 

[matchmaker]

Greenock Princes Pier.

 

[simonw]

Port Victoria, isle of grain.

 

[Rescars]

This may be straying a bit too far off topic, but this thread illustrates just how closely integrated rail and marine passenger and freight traffic have been in the past. This seems to be in marked contrast with the lack of urgency there has been over the years in establishing a similar level of integration between rail and air traffic. Even in the era of Railway Air Services, the closest station to Croydon Aerodrome (RAS main operating centre) was the suburban station at Waddon. IIRC there was a short branch line built to serve the Aerodrome site during construction/expansion in the 1920s, but was lifted once the building works were completed.

 

[Springs Branch]

The OP didn’t preclude light rail & tramways, so how about the Blackpool Tramway’s terminus at Fleetwood Ferry.

Is this the only light rail example still in existence?
(There must have been plenty in the past - Liverpool Pier Head tram terminus springs to mind)

Edinburgh Tram’s Ocean Terminal terminus is a bit of a stretch, as this appears always to have been just the name of the rather bland shopping centre, the only vessel you can board there being the Royal Yacht Britannia.

 

[Lloyds siding]

There are trips from Southend Pier, getting along there on the Pier railway.

Southport pier has had a railway along it for many years, and, a long time ago, had steamers sailing from the end. However the railway has been closed for a while, and the latest news is that the rail track is to be removed.

Ramsey Pier on the Isle of Man was an occasional terminal for IOMSP ships. A railway ran the length of it. However it's 50 years since a vessel called, and the pier closed in 1991. However a restoration is in progress (including the pier railway), and the first stages have reopened.

 

[Springs Branch]

London~Derry Waterside certainly sounds like a prime candidate and, in its various manifestations, has always been located right on the banks of the River Foyle.

I'm not sure whether historically there were any regular quayside passenger transfers between trains and boats at Londonderry Waterside (as per the criterion implied in the OP). Maybe the source of the station's name was mainly its location in the Waterside district of the city?

Larne Harbour

This thread has some good examples in the Republic of Ireland but, apart from Larne, are/were there any others in Northern Ireland?

 

[zwk500]

This may be straying a bit too far off topic, but this thread illustrates just how closely integrated rail and marine passenger and freight traffic have been in the past. This seems to be in marked contrast with the lack of urgency there has been over the years in establishing a similar level of integration between rail and air traffic. Even in the era of Railway Air Services, the closest station to Croydon Aerodrome (RAS main operating centre) was the suburban station at Waddon. IIRC there was a short branch line built to serve the Aerodrome site during construction/expansion in the 1920s, but was lifted once the building works were completed.

1 Reason for this is Commercial - railway companies often owned the Dock, ships, maritime lines or some combination thereof. Airports havent had the same close connection. Another reason is time - when the railways were being built, they could aim for suitable sites to build harbours. Whereas airports came after the railways but needed large areas of flat land so couldn't always be built immediately adjacent to a station.

Having said that, off the top of my head the following Airports have a mainline station either within or adjacent to the terminal:
Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Manchester. Inverness has a station within walking distance.
Luton and Birmingham have people movers for a mainline rail station.
Edinburgh and City have light rail connections. Newcastle, Heathrow have metro connections.
Bristol, Liverpool, have direct bus links to a nearby mainline station.
I've certainly missed some links.

 

[hermit]

Southampton Airport Parkway is right next door to Southampton Airport. Indeed I believe the airport’s publicity has claimed that there are fewer steps from plane to train than with any other UK airport.