Alderney Railway

The Alderney Railway is a standard gauge railway on the Channel Island of Alderney, which was originally built for military reasons and is now used as a museum railway.

History

In the 1840s, extensive fortifications was begun in the field of Braye Bay with the construction. The building materials were quarried at the eastern end of the island. To carry out the transport of materials for the fortification of the Alderney Railway was the British Admiralty after years of preparation in 1847, opened as the first public railway in Britain.

As part of the fortifications, a port was built to which a breakwater is one that was originally 1,430 feet long. Since the base of the breakwater had to be constantly renewed, the railway remained even after the completion of construction in operation.

In 1851, the British royal couple visited the island and also toured the Alderney Railway, which was otherwise used only for freight. The railway served its original purpose until 1921, when they. Together with the quarries to the Brookes Ltd was leased. Brookes, at that time the largest employer on Alderney, exported granite gravel for road and continued to deliver the material for the maintenance of the breakwater.

After the German occupation in 1940 the tracks were largely dismantled and partially used, the route of railways with 600 mm gauge. After the withdrawal of German troops in 1945 the standard gauge systems have been rebuilt by the British Ministry of Defence and used for the maintenance of the breakwater. 1958 ended steam operations with the delivery of the first diesel locomotive. Mid-1970s, took on responsibilities for breakwater and railway to the Interior Ministry, where you tried to use the web touristy. The line was eventually leased to the " Alderney Railway Society ", which became operational on March 5, 1980.

The tourist trains run regularly today in the afternoon on weekends from Easter to end of September, more trains will be used in the summer and before Christmas. The travel time in one direction is 15 minutes.

Route

The first, no longer busy, section of the track starts at the top of the breakwater at the Braye Bay and runs along the crown of the harbor. The route continues through the harbor to St. Anne to today's final stop at the Braye Road, at the start the trains of the Railway Museum. The route takes in some distance from the shore along the coast past quarries and fortifications at the eastern tip of the island where the path ends in Mannez Quarry. The busy stretch is about two miles long today.

Rolling stock

About the use of vehicles in front of the German occupation, there are hardly sources. The use of a two-axle, built by Pecket & Sons saddle tank locomotive and a number of simple two-axle tipper for transportation of goods is known.

After the end of World War II no useful vehicles more were present on Alderney. First 24 Seitenkipp cars were brought from an American production and a small two-axle locomotive with vertical boiler to Alderney for the transport of materials. The steam locomotive was named " Molly ", the dump truck were called because of their origin " Yankees ". 1958 took over a two-axle diesel locomotive of Ruston Hornsby, which was also called " Molly," the operation. These vehicles were equipped with a central buffer coupling according to the American system. " Molly " is still available, but can not be used in passenger train service because of the clutch and brake design.

The museum passenger train operation in 1980 with two Wickham light railway wagons, of which six are now arrives on the island, was added. In 1982, a two-axis Bagnall steam locomotive named " JT Daly " procured and used with two open cars until the mid- 1990s. Then, the vehicles were delivered to Jersey, as the steam engine was not used much and was too expensive to maintain. In 1984, a further two-axle diesel locomotive type Drewry to Alderney. This locomotive was built by Vulcan in Newtown and used there until the end of the locomotive design as works locomotive. Since 1985, this locomotive carries the name " Elizabeth " with the number D100 the brunt of the operation.

For the carriage of passengers in 1987 two 1938 -built metro car of the London Underground were procured, which were drawn on Alderney by a diesel locomotive. Because of the harsh maritime climate, the state of the car deteriorated rapidly, so that they had to be retired and scrapped in 2000. As a replacement, again, two subway cars were built in 1959 procured with the numbers 1044 and 1045 from London, which are used since 2001 and because of the aluminum construction to cope with the climate hopefully better.

Due to insufficient loading facilities at the port, the transport of vehicles to and from the mainland is problematic, so that the diesel had to be delivered in parts. The subway cars were transported by landing craft of the army.