DISUSED Weymouth Harbour Tramway 

Today (5th October 2020) the line was severed from the network and contractors are due to lift the line over the next few months - very sad occasion

I did this line on a mid-90s railtour, and took my mother along as she loved Weymouth. She wasn't a rail enthusiast by any means, but considered the trip down the tramway as one of the best experiences of her life.

Excellent filming and very steady camerawork. I've lived in Weymouth for 65 years and had several family members who were British Railway employees and my maternal great-grandfather was a GWR man based at our docks. My earliest memories of our unique tramway go back to the late 1950s when, as a toddler, I stood in awe as huge, hissing, puffing steam locos with a clanging bell mounted at the front, operated by the fireman via a long pull-cord, hauling trains of clanking goods wagons or majestic passenger carriages progressed slowly along Commercial Road. Harbourside motor traffic was brought to a standstill as railway engines had the right-of-way at all times. As a 12-year old, I was lucky enough to ride footplate on several of our pannier-tank 0-6-0 engines with my uncle at the regulator and it's an experience which is still vivid in my memory. By the 1970s and 80s diesel locos had replaced steam and much larger engines with deep roaring and throbbing motors frightened young children and unsuspecting visitors alike. Motorists who'd inadvertently parked their cars in a way which encroached on the "iron road" would most likely return to find the vehicle had moved several feet as railway crew (and often helpful bystanders!) walking ahead of the locos would physically 'bounce' the errant car out of harm's way. Woe betide larger trucks or lorries as they'd find themselves at the end of a tow-truck's chain, if the driver was absent! Thankfully, efforts by some self-aggrandising and mean-spirited individuals to have the tramway rails consigned to the dustbin of history have come to a big, fat nothing. Accidents to cyclists, motorbikers and cars have been the result of the driver's own complacency and lack of awareness. I either cycle, motorcycle or drive my car over the rails nearly every week and have never come to any harm even in the wettest weather. Long may the Harbour Tramway be part of Weymouth's historic fabric and, fingers crossed, will once again be used for purpose.

Part of history still stands my dad use too walk infront of the class 33 locos in the early 80s on that route thank-you for the video

This is one of those treasured locations you never forget, I was instrumental in organising a special weekend excursion to Guernsey and Jersey in 1977 (with the cooperation of British Rail and Sealink) . The train ran from Wolverhampton High Level, Birmingham New Street, Coventry, Leamington Spa and Banbury right through to Weymouth Quay. Locomotives changed at Bournemouth Central from a class 47 to a flashing class 33 which took us through the streets of Weymouth upto the quayside to board the boat. The ships on the route were either Earl Godwin or Caledonian Princess. The price included Bed, breakfast and evening meal with a coach tour of the island on the Sunday with lunch and evening entertainment at the hotels, on the return sea journey we had vouchers to exchange for 1 x litre of spirits and 200 cigarettes, all for £19.50 . What you might say! YES £19.50 We repeated the exercise the following year with 472 on board. at a slightly higher price with three further trips going via Portsmouth Harbour in 1978/9. Happy days.

Very interesting film. Thanks for taking the time to do this and post it.

Seeing a train going along there used to be a highlight of a visit to Weymouth.

Thanks for this. I knew it in the ,1960s, but I'd forgotten how long it was! Great to be reminded of a fascinating bit of railway.

I remember as a youngster travelling on this line a few times, my parents often went to the Channel islands on holiday and would take this train to the harbour station to catch one of the two British Rail ferries "Sarnia" and "Caesarea" to the islands.I also remember holidaying in Weymouth and seeing the trains snaking through the back streets.

Thank you! I well recall the sense of awe when, en route to guernsey in 1976 the train just seemed to break out of the station and go down the road - as in fact it did!

Habedank ich finde eure Filme immer wieder atemberaubend und hört ja nicht auf damit jeder ist seines angucken Schwert und ich finde euch phänomenal ich bin ein leidenschaftlicher Fan von RU-vid Filme und gucke alle Richtungen ich kann gar nicht hin so viel gucken wie ich gucken möchte schönes Fest und schöne Feiertage wünscht ein leidenschaftlicher RU-vid Zuschauer

It’s a great experience, going through the streets of Weymouth on a train. I took a train from Waterloo to Weymouth and discovered that it was going to the harbour, decided I was not going to miss this one; stayed on the train at Weymouth and when the police escort for the train arrived we were off to the harbour. Lovely journey.

I was a bit anxious before but this video has really chilled me out. Thanks for doing the journey and uploading it.

I lived in Weymouth 1977/1978 and this brought back so many wonderful memories, thank you. 😌

Very interesting after watching Fred Ivey's film of 1994 showing the line in use - the sad passing of time. Liked the the written commentary, nicely paced and informative. Thank-you.

Magnificent, hurrah! Thank-you. This is very close to my heart. Surely it is a case for a Heritage Trust restoration project.

I just happened to come across your video by chance. It's a very good documentary, and the local scenery is great including the barking dogs. No spoken words just on screen text to explain things when needed. It was like I was there walking in your footsteps. I liked that your camera didn't bounce around making the experience even better.

I remember going on the boat train in about 1975, it was bizarre looking out of the train and seeing cars alongside.

I'm not a trainspotter or anything, but I find ordinary real-life videos like this interesting.

Thank you for this excellent video. My partner Susan Jeffrey and I have happy memories of working in a Summer Repertory Theatre Season at the Weymouth & South Dorset Arts Centre in Commercial Road - sadly, now demolished - the site is now a car park, visible at the left of frame behind the black railings at 6'45'' approx. We remember the trains passing frequently during our stay.

Really fascinating video...even for someone on the other side of the world. It's hard to imagine the activity that would have been going on around the line in it's heyday. How the "powers that be" can't see the potential in operating the line occasionally as a tourist attraction beats me.

Thank you for this interesting video. I am only slightly familiar with this line as I was a passenger on the first train after the services was discontinued. It was a rail tour in the early 90s I'm not sure which year. I remember the crowds watching the train coming down the street and the crew having to bump cars out of the way where they had been parked on or too close to the line despite all the warning signs and the fact that notices had been sent warning residents the the train would be coming. It was all very exciting and a great day out in a sunny Weymouth. I remember my family spent most of the day on the beach near the harbour and excellent fish and chips on the seafront. What a great way to spend a day. I seem to recall that we were in old southern railway green carriages pulled by a diesel but I might be wrong.

Great video , I enjoyed it ! ....Thanks for sharing ! 🧐🇬🇧🤔👍🏻❤️💪🏻🤓🤓🤓🤝🤝🤝

I was in Weymouth this week and saw the remaining rails on the quayside and wondered what they were, excellent video giving me an insight to a lost railway.

I remember travelling along this on a Boat Train from Waterloo in early April 1981 en route to Guernsey. I was working in Central London and commuted to Waterloo and saw the trains to Weymouth Quay on the indicator boards. The opportunity presented itself - I think it might even have been a Golden Rail holiday - to travel the line. While the journey to the boat was fine, once we were on the ferry all hell was let loose and we had a very, very unpleasant crossing in a Force 8 gale.

I find “branch line” to be very appropriate for its current condition!

I have a whole bunch of photos of a train running along the harbour from the early 1990s. It was actually a big thing at the time, brought loads of tourists out. I'm sorry to see that it is currently disused; I had wondered if that was now the case. Thanks for the video.

Such a shame, it's part of our railway history. I can remember in the summer of '81 taking photos of the train making it's way down to the harbour.

I lived in Weymouth when the line was active, always wonderful to see, and great fun watching them bump the obstructing cars out of the way. Thank you!

went to Jersey in 1970 used this line, can remember the the BR guys moving cars off the tracks, another brilliant production .. R

An ideal subject for a drone video too.

Interesting video, thanks for sharing.

I had often wondered how I should imagine this line. Thank you for taking the trouble to film it.

The fact they upgraded parts of the infrastructure must surely mean Network Rail either intend to do something with it, or are preserving it in case it is needed in the future - almost doing the opposite of Mr. Beeching in anticipation of some unknown need for it in the future, knowing that if they remove it now, It won't be able to be re-built

One of the the old Weymouth drivers told me that there used to be a board on the back of the freight trains warning cars to keep 20ft behind (I think this was the distance). Of course one driver ignored this and followed closely behind. The train came to a halt and the wagons took up the slack then started moving quckly back from the compressed buffers. One squashed motor 😄

Very interesting...Nice work

I distinctly remember traveling through the streets of Weymouth on the train having come down from Leicester to go on holiday in Guernsey in 1968.

Used to watch in fascination as trains squeezed past stupidly parked cars. Thanks for this.

I passed this once on a school trip on the coach. I was very amazed as I haven't seen an abandoned railway before.

Another well made and interesting video. Thank you.

I lived weymouth and vividly remember the trains going to the sea link terminal. Thank you for sharing

Rumours always start with a good story that sounds plausible, the story goes something like this... Wouldn't it be great to get the tramway going again? We could get a steam engine to run up and down the quay several times a day. That could meet up with one of the paddle steamers that visit Weymouth a few times a year and take the passengers to Swanage, where they would disembark and walk up to the station before travelling on the Swanage railway pulled by steam to Norden, then onto the SouthwestRail network and back to Weymouth.

Great video! It's 21 years since I was last in Weymouth and whilst the dockway and port remain the same, the rest of the town has changed alot!

Thanks for filming this bit of railway history

Thanks for posting this very interesting video of one of my favourite places! 👍🙂

Very imformative and interesting video. I lasted visited Weymouth Harbour when travelling to Jersey in the 90's. It's a real shame the train and ferry services have stopped.

Great video! Was there a couple of weeks ago - station building now gone but still some remnants of track and point work on approach to station.

Awesome Video Morthren! It reall is a shame this line is no longer used and facing permanent abandonement.

Thank you SO much for walking the line - have watched the older "tour" vids and mapped the route - good to follow you at a sensible pace! I'll put it out @4RailTrail immediately 🙂

I love how the signals are still in use!

Excellent and atmospheric. 🙂👍

I remember the boat train going through Weymouth to the harbour.

I would have thought the Weymouth Harbour Tramway would have been an asset to Weymouth, as a possible tourist attraction…?

Brilliant video of modern history which should be a good reference for history lessons in the future. 10 out of 10

Nice video morthren - Known about this line but nice to see a video in its current state with your brilliant information-filled documentary 😊

rail history must be preserved !!!

Ooh not sure why this appeared in my feed but l love a disused railway line story. Always saddens me too.

7:20 The b**locks Councillors do talk. If anyone constrains the development of the town it's blinkin' them.

Always nice to see a gentle, calm and informative morthren video in my subs. Keep up the good work.

Went along the tramway back in the late 60s [Edit: 1969] en route to a family holiday on Guernsey. Came as a complete surprise as none of us had any idea this was what happened. Good to see there are signs it may be put back into use.

Best video so far in my opinion....

Travelled on it in 1986. Great memories and super 8 film!

This line should be part of a heritage line, most of the track is in reasonable condition and it could be an asset to Weymouth once more. They could even organise heritage boat trips to France from the end of the line where the ferry used to run from.

Fond memories of the Tramway. Thank you for posting in your usual style which I love

Stumbled across your lovely video by accident but thoroughly enjoyed it! Visit the area a few times a year. Am known to be an occasional train spotter too ;) and have an interest in old railways. People find that quite odd for a woman in her 30s. It would be lovely to see a tram going from the station/large car park area along to the harbour, would be a lovely tourist attraction. Can't see it happening, too much effort and money. Thanks again :)

tramway was first opened with Great Western and South Western trains to support the Channel Island Steam Packet Service. As the port of Weymouth grew, a new system was required to maintain the level of freight passing through the town. Thanks for sharing

Great video. Love Weymouth and we come down at least 3 times a year. I've followed this track too on many an occasion!

a great piece of history that will will just disappear in sections of lines left uneffected over the coming years. great vid but so sad. as we know all good things go in the end no matter what...

Remember this well. Saw many a class 33 traverse the line back in the day. Biggest problem seemed to be parked cars that sometimes had to be bump-lifted clear. The flagman always made it look like a proper bit of Victorian railway operation, if you ignored the 33+mk1s of course. We used to get the first train of the day from Melksham. It originated off Cardiff Canton and was made of three DMUs, two of which were positioning units for other diagrams. Often it would be the chocolate and cream set leading. Cardiff drivers were usually brilliant, telling us their railway histories and tales of the road. Thanks, nice upload.

An interesting video, which brought back memories of a day railtour I took in the mid 1980s from London to the Harbour! It wasn’t quite as derelict looking back then, but it was still a fascinating day out!

I used to travel regularly between Weymouth and Farnborough, mainly fyom Weymouth station. On one occasion, when there was disruption on the journey, I picked up the boat-train at Basingstoke. I rode it down to the quay on the tramway. I must have been on one of the last services. Brings back many happy memories.

We used to visit Weymouth in the 1970's. I well remember this line in use. The "end of the line" shown here was not quite, there were points for the locomotive to 'run around' to make return trip. I also remember tanker trucks in a siding to the left of the station. Once we used the ferry from here, and on deck waited until the boat train had arrived to drop of passengers. No ferry terminal so no need of the station I guess.

That was very interesting to watch... Thank you my friend...

I remember travelling down there in the late 1960's behind a steam locomotive if I remember correctly. The train was preceeded by a number of P-Way staff who were bumping parked cars out of the way and trying to get them tightly into the gaps between the lamp posts so they would have difficulty getting out - some sort of measure to disuade them from parking obstructing the tracks in future. A very slow journey to the ship and it was very rough on the ferry. We got stuck in Guernsey for the night as it was too rough for the ferry to Sark to run.

A real shame - I would've loved a ride on the tram. Thanks for showing us the route!

Fascinating! An interesting and well shot video, with excellent, informative captions, not made unwatchable by inane, unintelligible commentary and, worse still, nauseating mind-numbing so-called "MUSIC" to do one's head in. Made all the better by the perfect ambient sound. Very refreshing in all those respects. Many thanks.

nicely done. great filming and info.

Fascinating. I was born in Weymouth. It brought back memories of mine as a child watching the trains at a snail's pace squeeze past parked vehicles with inches to spare, a railway worker walking before the train getting vehicles moved. I'm glad it is still possible to use the line even though it hasn't been for some years.

An excellent video to another part of the country I never got to. Thank you for the tour.

Nice walthrough! We don't get much turnaround time at Weymouth before heading back out again (most being about 45 minutes for the 03 fast service), so it's nice to see a modern walkthrough. Lots of old pictures and equipment in the Weymouth mess room but nothing really up to date ;)

Great video, thanks for documenting!

I remember getting the boat train from Waterloo to Weymouth Harbour hauled by a Class 33 back in about 1978. Then the Ferry to.St Helier those were the days.

I literally explored the line using Google Maps a few days ago. I found out the line from an old All The Stations video that I watched a few days ago. It was interesting so that I tried to explore it. And then I watched your video and recognised the twin arch viaduct that is similar to the one I saw on the Street View. Your video is really interesting, it gives the experience of walking down the old line. And for me, it's way better than explore it on Street View. I can't wait to follow along your next journey somewhere street (and rail) in the U.K. 😁 Greetings from Indonesia 👋

Thanks again for such an amazing informative video

That is my neck of the woods! Amazing that the line still has working signals. Across the bridge by the train station is a path along the old line past a disused station.

I think that you will find that this branch line (not a tramway) is listed as a "strategic asset by the MOD and it is not the only one. You are not supposed to know this of course !

What a great video. Been to Weymouth many times I hadn’t seen the tracks.

another Interesting Fact: Just at the end of the loading quay 13:33, there used to be a siding going off to the end of the raised part of the quay (you can still see the tracks), and there was another siding constructed during the war going off to a linkspan for a train ferry alongside the cargo stage. It was never used as such though I think. The track alongside the cargo stage was for loading trains of vans with potatoes and things straight off the boats. 14:38 that's now been extended until about February,. like nearly everything

Loved the walk along the track, with some nice information. Brings back childhood holiday memories from the 80s, I've been every year since and now with my children, one thing I've liked to do is follow the line to the harbour, sadly this year it cannot be done 😢

Based on the sattelite view one may just walk around that building to the left of that massive blue "Restricted area" gate and see the remaining couple meters of the tracks

great video,walked the line in 2017,thanks for sharing.

Good vid. Brings back a lot of memories. I remember the ferries being active from there and watching the Class 33's bring the boat train down that line. Weymouth Station itself used to have some interesting locos coming down from the north of England, Class 47's and 31's iirc. All gone now sadly, replaced by bland and boring units.

I love this line. Thanks for this excellent video.

How about they actually put trams on that line and use overhead power lines

Another brilliant informative video! I expect they would have great difficulty in running trains down there - too many numpties parked all over the track!

I remember being on a railtour which came down the branch and the crew having to hand bump cars out of the way and squeeze past others by the thickness of the shine! I have several pictures I took at the time including the loco stopped behind a green double decker bus at the terminal platform. All would give the HSE bods heeby jeebys these days.

Rumour was it was going to reopen to help travel to the Olympic sailing venue at Weymouth in 2012 as we now know it never happened

I was at college there in 1985 and we used to have lunch at the bowling green. First day I was sat there and wondered why there was a train going down the middle of the road!

I remember going on the tramway in the 60s to catch the ferry to Jersey

When I was a child in the sixties my family made several day trips to Weymouth. I count myself exceptionally lucky then to have seen one of the scheduled boat trains in use on the harbor branch. Unfortunately, it was an experience I wasn't able to repeat and I didn't have the opportunity to return to Weymouth until 2012 when my wife and I used the ferry terminal at Weymouth to travel to Guernsey. Moving to Jersey in 2014 meant that my wife & I used the ferry terminal at Weymouth regularly until Condor moved to Poole in 2015. Towards the end of 2019, we unexpectedly found ourselves stuck in Poole due to a ferry breaking down. My wife and I decided to return to Weymouth and I took the opportunity to take some photographs of the old quayside railway station. The arrival of Covid-19 meant that I was prevented from returning to Weymouth. It was with a genuine sense of sadness then that I recently learned that the line has been removed and the old station building demolished. Whilst I can look at the photographs I took of the station building and enjoy some videos of the branch in use it's your video which is so poignant. Thank you for having the insight to make it while you did and to allow me and others to see something that was so special.