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Seaside & Holiday Island Narrow Gauge


Nearholmer
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3 hours ago, Hando said:

Speaking of another 18-inch gauge seaside miniature railway... Does anyone know what happened to the Jaywick Stirling Single?

 

I don't knpow where it is now, but it did work at Fairbourne for a while before the war. Since it was a different gauge they had to lay a third rail for it.

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Some incredibly obvious lines I've chosen to point out as no-one has already:

 

The Ffestiniog and Welsh Highland Railways (at Porthmadog)

The Southwold Railway

The Penrhyn Quarry Railway (at Port Penrhyn)

 

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The town i live in, Bridlington, originally had a miniature railway. It was called The Spa Miniature Railway and was located by the boating pool, to the south of the Bridlington Spa and opened in 1951. On 31st January 1953, The gales and high tides, which brought so much havoc to the east coast of England, washed away much of the railway infrastructure but it soldiered on until 1967. 

 

Today, no trace of it remains and the Lifeboat station is built on the spot where it was. 

 

The locomotive was a 1937 built Bassett Lowke 4-4-0 Southern Railway outline model for 7.25” gauge. Amazingly, it is still operating in private ownership on the Wortley Forge Model Engineers Miniature Railway.

 

 

The railway. 

image.png.741d3ae48911065b06fc06aa9d8f38e9.png

 

 

The preserved 4-4-0 running on the Wortley Forge Model Engineers Miniature Railway.

image.png.1e0994d704132bc3d0155fef31cd6861.png

 

 

 

 

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19 minutes ago, Hando said:

Some incredibly obvious lines I've chosen to point out as no-one has already

 

I've not proposed "serious railways that happen to end at the sea", because to me they aren't "seaside railways", more "railways beside the sea", which is a rather narrow distinction, I know. I nearly suggested the Baie de la Somme, but didn't, for that very reason.

 

To me, a seaside railway is one that has as its primary purpose enjoying the seaside, or some essentially sea-based function ....... fishing, servicing a lighthouse, sea-defences, golf-links, bringing drunken sailors home from the pub, smuggling, that sort of thing. 

 

 

 

Edited by Nearholmer
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39 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

 

I've not proposed lines that "serious railways that happen to end at the sea", because to me they aren't "seaside railways", more "railways beside the sea", which is a rather narrow distinction, I know. I nearly suggested the Baie de la Somme, but didn't, for that very reason.

 

To me, a seaside railway is one that has as its primary purpose enjoying the seaside, or some essentially sea-based function ....... fishing, servicing a lighthouse, sea-defences, golf-links, bringing drunken sailors home from the pub, smuggling, that sort of thing. 

 

Gotcha, sorry about that

 

Although I have to admit of the railways on that list I compiled, the Southwold Railway was hardly a serious railway at all.

It's operation in any streamlined matter was constrained by the managment's lack of enthusiasm to spend any money. So no wonder Reg Carter satirised it in his postcards.

Edited by Hando
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The Swanage Pier Tramway:

image.png.014d5aee1fde238f53cb217349d48c14.png

image.png.b5816b68a5e4003be439b68a1a9406f9.png

image.png.d32876eb99892e67c0489114965b59f4.png

The mysterious rails of Chippel Bay:

This is probably the most on-the-nose one you'll get Nearholmer, it's a tramway that is so close to the sea that it gets submerged! I read a fascinating online booklet published by the Lyme Regis Museum documenting the Cement industry of the town, one section features the strange tramway at Chippel Bay, with the writer Richard Bull noting that it is very unclear as to why the tramway is there at all, although there are theories...

http://www.lymeregismuseum.co.uk/lrm/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/6_cement_industry_in_lyme.pdf

image.png.235e6466cef27d484bc62e5469296dec.png

 

Edited by Hando
Got the names mixed up, honestly I am a pillock sometimes!
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If I could find the album with it in, I'd show one at Port Navalo in France that we found, which was like that; 2ft gauge rails off a shore, across a stony beach, and straight into the sea. I think it might have originated as something for unloading shellfish from boats at all states of the tide.

 

We only stumbled upon it because we drove to said port, thinking we could catch a ferry across a bay to get to where we were staying. Turned out that the ferry was about the size of a rowing boat, accessed down a ladder from a quayside about 20ft above the water. Not ideal for a car. We had to drive in a big circuit of about thirty miles, so that we could look at the exact same spot from a hundred yards distant!

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Well, I've been to that one too, and it is a very nice sea-sidey walk, so its allowed.

 

(Note the rigorous logic applied to that judgement)

 

Nearby, there are some old fishing boats, sawn in half, stood on end, and made into sheds, which would be an ideal feature on a layout.

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2 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

Well, I've been to that one too, and it is a very nice sea-sidey walk, so its allowed.

 

(Note the rigorous logic applied to that judgement)

 

Nearby, there are some old fishing boats, sawn in half, stood on end, and made into sheds, which would be an ideal feature on a layout.

Reminds me of this comment by @Hroth on the Castle Aching thread a while back...

 

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