Portage railway

A Huntsville and Lake of Bays Railway engine, an example of a small locomotive on a narrow-gauge portage railway.

A portage railway is a short and possibly isolated section of railway used to bypass a section of unnavigable river or between two water bodies which are not directly connected.[1] Cargo from waterborne vessels is unloaded, loaded onto conventional railroad rolling stock, carried to the other end of the railway, where it is unloaded and loaded onto a second waterborne vessel. A portage railway is the opposite of a train ferry.

  1. ^ Derek Hayes (2006). "Historical Atlas of Canada: Canada's History Illustrated with Original Maps". Douglas & McIntyre. p. 210. ISBN 9781553650775. Retrieved 2013-03-23. Most of Canada's first railways were portage railways, designed to meet river traffic and ferry it past rapids.