Portland Railway
This week's Saturday Timewatch might not seem much of a photo. However, it illustrates a very important aspect of Portland's industrial past.
This is the trackbed of what was then known as Portland Railway, now called Merchant's Railway. The island has long been famous for Portland stone. However, how do you get the very large blocks of stone from the quarries on top of the island down to the sea for shipping around the country? One solution you may have seen on previous photos was the use of derricks to lower blocks down the sea cliffs onto barges. A hazardous process given the strong tidal currents! A second was to build short piers but again these were very exposed to tide and storm.
This was a third alternative, a 650 yard long horse-drawn and cable railway that dropped 270 feet down to Castletown. It was for the exclusive use of Portland's stone industry. You can read a full account here www.portlandhistory.co.uk/merchants-railway.html
Portland Railway
This week's Saturday Timewatch might not seem much of a photo. However, it illustrates a very important aspect of Portland's industrial past.
This is the trackbed of what was then known as Portland Railway, now called Merchant's Railway. The island has long been famous for Portland stone. However, how do you get the very large blocks of stone from the quarries on top of the island down to the sea for shipping around the country? One solution you may have seen on previous photos was the use of derricks to lower blocks down the sea cliffs onto barges. A hazardous process given the strong tidal currents! A second was to build short piers but again these were very exposed to tide and storm.
This was a third alternative, a 650 yard long horse-drawn and cable railway that dropped 270 feet down to Castletown. It was for the exclusive use of Portland's stone industry. You can read a full account here www.portlandhistory.co.uk/merchants-railway.html