Gibraltar docks railway

[Hando]

Does anyone have any photos or maps of the Gibraltar docks railway? As I have only found photos of the locos and rolling stock from long distance. Any responses would be gladly received.

[EddieB]

What you're looking for is an article by Maurice Dart in no. 189 of Industrial Railway Record (2007) - "Memories of the Gibraltar Dockyard Railway", illustrated with photographs and a map of the system.  Copies of this issue are still available from the Industrial Railway Society, see http://www.irsociety.co.uk/

[PhilJ W]

Most of the line was in tunnel under the rock itself.

[thaddeus]

Most of the line was in tunnel under the rock itself.

The docks railway was quite extensive on the west side with a tunnel of less than a mile that serviced the east side. When I lived there you could still see the rails buried in the road surface and an engine shed was still extant. No doubt the Army used railways to remove spoil from the tunneling projects but afaik they weren't connected.

[Hando]

Interesting, here are some photos I know of already that are online:

There aren't any locos in sight!

 

I learnt that there were 17 locos on the system at one point, four of them were named; Gibraltar, Catalan, Rosia and Calpe, and that recently the last van on the line has been cosmetically restored by the Gibraltar Heritage Trust on the rock.

Here is a link to the blog of the Trust: https://gibraltarheritagetrust.org.gi/about-gibraltar-heritage/news/23-09-2014/boxcar-restoration

 

There are also some pictures of the locos when they were sold to contractors who worked in Singapore: http://www.searail.malayanrailways.com/Industrial/industrial.htm (scroll down to Topham,Jones and Railton's Singapore Harbour contract)

[EddieB]

I learnt that there were 17 locos on the system at one point, four of them were named; Gibraltar, Catalan, Rosia and Calpe, 

Rather more than seventeen in total, here's a brief summary:

 

Steam

13 x Bagnall 0-4-0ST (inverted saddle tanks, 1895-6)

3 x Manning Wardle 0-4-0ST (names as given above, 1899/1901, for Topham contract)

1  Hunslet 0-4-0ST (CALPE, 1901, for Topham contract)

2 x Kitson 0-4-0T (1904 - for War Office, *confirmation of deployment in Gibraltar required)

3 x Bagnall 0-4-0T (1905)

1 x Barclay 0-4-0T (1920)

2 x Bagnall 0-40ST (1944 - for Director of Naval Contracts, Gibraltar Dockyard, *confirmation of deployment in Gibraltar required)

1 x n/k (1949?)

 

Battery-Electric

1 x Wingrove & Rogers 4wBEL (1927)

1 x Victor Electrics

 

I/c

1 x Baguley 0-4-0PM (1928)

2 x Hunslet 0-4-0DM (1941)

2 x Motor Rail 4wDM (1943)

1 x Hibberd (1954)

1 x Ruston Hornsby (1949)

2 x Fate-Root-Heath

 

Most of these are described, and several illustrated in the IRR article mentioned earlier.  Those entries asterisked were not mentioned in the article, which relates to observation in the immediate post-war years.