Portland Branch Railway

Portland Branch Railway
Legend
GWR line to Dorchester Weymouth Harbour Tramway Melcombe Regis Weymouth Weymouth Quay Radipole Lake Westham Halt Rodwell Tunnel Rodwell Sandsfoot Castle Halt Wyke Regis Halt The Fleet Castletown Pier Admiralty Breakwater Exchange Sidings Coaling Pier Portland (Dorset) First Portland station Admiralty Incline (later used for Goods) Portland Incline Easton (Portland)

The Portland Branch railway refers to a group of lines on the Isle of Portland in the English county of Dorset. The first was the Portland Railway, a tramway with a counterbalanced rope-worked incline. It opened in 1826. It was followed by the Weymouth and Portland Railway, which connected to the main line of the Great Western Railway at Weymouth. It opened in 1865. From the late 1840s until 1872, Portland Breakwater was built, a prodigious construction task that created a very large safe harbour. It was decided to provide a railway connection to the breakwater, which was used as a pier for bunkering ships. This was constructed by the LSWR and the GWR jointly and opened in 1876. The fourth line was the Easton and Church Hope Railway. This line was conceived as a simple descent to bring stone down from quarries to a new jetty at Church Ope, but after their line was authorised in 1867, the Company delayed useful construction, and a change of plan followed, with several acts of Parliament authorising modifications to the route and extension of time. It finally opened in 1900.

The Weymouth and Portland Railway and the Easton and Church Hope Railway were operated jointly by the Great Western Railway and the LSWR. As far as Portland, the line was well used, but the onward section to Easton was disappointing commercially, and the E&CHR company, which owned the infrastructure, fell into receivership. The entire line closed to passengers in 1952 and completely in 1965. There is no railway activity on the former route now.