More information : (SY 68 74) Portland Railway [NAT] (1)
The Portland (or Merchants') Railway. Receiving Royal Assent on June 10th 1825 (6 Geo Cap 121), and completed in 1826, at a cost of £5869, the Portland Railway was Dorset's earliest. It ran a distance of 2 miles and 4 chains from the Priory Lands (SY 6853 7285) to Castletown Pier (SY 6872 7445). Of standard gauge, it was principally used to transport stone from the Tout, King Barrow and Weycroft Quarries to which it was connected by a system of tramways. It utilised an incline to the south west of the later Verne Fort. The last train ran in 1939. [See Illustration card] (2,3) |