FAREWELL WEYMOUTH QUAY

The Weymouth Quay tramway will soon be gone. NICK BRODRICK presents a selection of evocative scenes from Dorset’s famous rails in the road as they disappear into history.

Dorset’s famous rails in the road

First Folkestone, now Weymouth.

The last 11 years haven’t been kind to two of the south’s most famous harbour branches. In 2009, ‘Britannia’ No. 70013 Oliver Cromwell was swarmed by crowds at Folkestone Harbour as it hauled the last train from the once bustling Channel port. Last month, 160ft of rail on the Weymouth Quay branch was lifted with little ceremony; the first stage of the scheme to remove all trace of the 1¼-mile branch.

The last main line street tramway in Britain will soon be no more.

And while the rails have remained invitingly embedded in the asphalt, the last special ran 21 years ago, which itself was 12 years after the last timetabled services were withdrawn. Since then, the rails have been kept polished by rubber tyres from cars and bicycles, which now parade the quayside unhindered by the once sedate, yet eye-catching, passage of trains. But even though the rails in the quayside are gradually disappearing, the memories of this wonderful organised chaos linger on. For those who witnessed it, you couldn’t have failed to be mesmerised by the sight of a squat outside cylinder pannier tank squealing its way betwixt boats bobbing in the quay and harbourside warehouses and public houses.

‘DANGER – KEEP 50FT CLEAR’ warned boards mounted to the bufferbeams of the Collett ‘1366s’ in the latter years of steam; a measure almost certainly brought about by one too many near misses. That was in addition to brass bells on the left-hand side running board that rang an audible warning to pedestrians and drivers.

The bells and whistles fell silent more than 50 years ago but, happily, we still have the South Devon Railway’s little pannier tank No. 1369 as a lasting reminder of the Dorset quayside. It even retains its bell, albeit not an original, which was cruelly stolen in 2014.

Sadly, it wasn’t the last vestige of Weymouth’s tramway to be removed…

T.G. HEPBURN/RAS No. 1368 again, this time waiting while porters load fruit from Guernsey in September 1957.

RAIL PHOTOPRINTS Ex-Culm Valley Railway 0-6-0T No. 1376 creeps past the houses, while a pilotman keeps watch along the road ahead, circa 1921.