Information sought on the Isle of Portland Railway

I have just been reading Thomas Hardy and in one of his novels he refers to the railway which existed on the Isle of Portland. The line I think was built in two stages with an extension to the village of Easton laid down in the early 1900’s and resulting in a new station to be built at the northern end of the island. Hardy’s novel was set in the period before the new extension and would therefore have been written around the early section of the line. I have searched for any references to the line in the railway press but without any great success. Any links to the subject or other information on the line would be most appreciated.

Online, try Disused Stations (Link to Easton). The cheapest copy of the Middleton Press book "Branch Lines Around Weymouth from Abbotsbury, Easton and the Quay" I can find is £10 (used) on Amazon and would probably be a good starting point. Incidentally, I'm pretty sure there are the remains of a stone tramway (a tramway made from stone, as well as to carry stone) on Portland.

Brian G

Edit:  If you really want to dig deep, Oakwood Press published a series of (I think) 3 Volumes which you can find using bookfinder.com and the title "Isle of Portland Railways". 

I'm afraid I haven't got these books, but I spend way too much time shopping for out of print railway books, and searching for somebody else's wants saves me spending

Edited By Brian G on 29/01/2023 10:15:57

There is a listing for it on the dreaded Wikipedia with quite a bit of intormation: LINK There is a list of "further reading" at the end, including a book specifically about the Isle's several railways.

I love Hardy. Railway travel seems to feature in many of his novels. I guess he was writing at a time when the burgeoning railway network in the rural areas he wrote about meant a newfound affordable mobility for country people that previous generations had not enjoyed. Cutting edge stuff in its day.

EDIT: and there is this LINK

Edited By Hopper on 29/01/2023 10:19:03

Edited By Hopper on 29/01/2023 10:22:51

Which novel? The date setting and story context might be a clue.

Portland is a complicated place! The public railway was built rather late, and was preceded by a railway built for the Navy (Portland being an important Naval Base), and even earlier by one that serviced the extensive quarries. The quarries also had an extensive network of semi-permanent industrial track on the island for moving stone.

Well done for reading Hardy - I find him too depressing.

Dave

It would be The Well-Beloved. One of his last, before Jude. So early 1890s.

The "Well-Belove". First published in serial form as "The Pursuit of the Well-Beloved" around 1892 followed by a re-publication as a novel called "The Well-Beloved" in I think 1898. You are right of course, he is very depressing to read.. Will follow up on the references given.

A further thought. Is it possible to check the combined indexes of "The Railway Magazine" as a possible source of reference?

Edited By Greensands on 29/01/2023 12:31:13

The route looped round the NE of the "island" (strictly, a tombolo) and ascended the East coast before turning inland to continue climbing through a deep cutting to Easton Station. This is in the centre of Portland, and the railway did continue for perhaps half a mile further Northwards to coal and stone yards, but really only as a long siding,

There were one or two branches to the masonry works, as well.

There are traces of the old horse-drawn quarry tramways in many parts of Portland. Some run round the West slopes of The Verne, giving an attractive footpath with fine views; while a point on the Old Verne Road gives a rather impressive view along a cutting bridged by arched stone bridges.

Their rails were held down by spikes set in lead, in holes cut in the tops of stone blocks set in the ground and still extensively visible.

These tramways though, pre-date but not predecess the line from Weymouth. That railway was built completely from new, and prior to that, stone was taken away by ship. There was no continuous road either to the mainland until the late-19C, when a bridge finally replaced the passenger ferry across the Fleet's hazardous Smallmouth entrance.

The Portland Branch Line had another important stopping-place, the Whiteheads Torpedo Factory at Wyke Regis, and adjacent to the road and rail bridges across Smallmouth. The factory was served by a private siding, and also had a two-foot gauge railway of its own that ran beneath the "main" line and out along the Torpedo Testing Pier. This has gone but its footings are often clearly visible in the shallow water, as two parallel lines of square blocks. The factory itself has gone too, after some years under new ownership making engine cylinder liners, and the site is now a small housing-estate with a commemorative plinth in its centre.

From the edge of Weymouth to Smallmouth the formation has been asphalted to create a popular walking / cycling route called The Rodwell Trail. (Rodwell is the well-to-do Victorian suburb the line once served rather over-expensively with a two-road station and signal-box!) Why "Trail", I have no idea... To sound American?

The formation is still ballast across the causeway as far its disappearance under the roads and buildings of a trading-estate on the former Royal Naval Air Station and fuel-oil depot. A large, open grassed area between this and the Victoria Square "entrance" to Portland is part of the Portland Station site. Further round, in Castletown, the railway's former route past what was the Naval Base (served by private sidings) is sealed from the public, within what is now the commercial Portland Port.

You can regain it on foot below The Grove, entailing travelling to "Tophill" and following a steep footpath down the cliff, then follow it Southwards to join paths serving Church Ope Cove and a cliff-top path from The Grove. The cutting started here but has been obliterated by quarrying.

Close to Church Ope is Portland Museum, worth a visit for its displays on the local geology, stone trade, RN involvement etc. The Museum building was originally two cottages bought in run-down state and refurbished, for using as Portland Museum, by Dr. Marie Stopes, the palaeobotanist and women's health campaigner, who lived elsewhere on the "Isle".

+++

I have never read any of Hardy's novels, despite being a near-native of Dorset (I suppose moving here when 7 might just excuse my being an offcumden.) I have heard many say his works are bleak, but let's face it, he was writing about a very bleak world very far removed from the second-homes' vistas. Rural it was, bucolic no, romantic not at all.