Isolated, and Very Isolated, railways

[The Pelican]

The two railways which come to mind as isolated in the UK are the Waterloo and City line, which became isolated when a train lift into it's depot closed, and the Bideford, Westward Ho! and Appledore railway, which terminated west of the river in Bideford while the LSWR ran East of the river.

On the other hand, some countries really do have isolated lines- the Pilbara mining reigon in Australia, Norilsk in northern Siberia in Russia, and the isolated networks which reach the St Lawrence river in Canada, all operate substantial systems seperate from the large national networks of those countries, but on the same landmass and using the same track gauge.

The above three are all connected to the main networks by water, and more recently by road as well. America has at least one completely isolated railway taking coal to be burnt at a power station, with neither end connected to other railways. I exclude railways isolated due to national borders, such as the Alaska railway or the various West Germany-East Germany lines.

Isolated funiculars exist in some odd places, especially in combination with dam construction. Islands often provide a reason for railways to be isolated. Heritage railways commonly don't connect to national networks, due to a desire to preserve stretches which would need a lot of relaying to reach the mainline.

What interesting examples are you aware of? I'd be most interested in isolated systems in mountainous areas.

 

[Beebman]

Funnily enough, only yesterday I was watching a video about the Ikawa Line in Shizuoka Prefecture in central Japan which used to be connected to another line, the Oigawa Main Line (both using the 'standard' Japanese gauge of 1067mm) but since 2022 it's been isolated following typhoon damage and it relies on a bus connection (video in English):

4 hours from the closest major city. 500 meters above sea level and 70 meters above the lakebed. Japan's most beautiful train station sure delivers an incredible view.

However the line, which includes the only rack section anywhere in Japan, is in danger of closure due to funding issues.

 

[Bemined]

In Germany a small island called Borkum has a 7km long railway going from the harbour to the town.

 

[Falcon1200]

The Waterford & Tramore Railway in the south of Ireland was never connected to the rest of the network. Not in a mountainous area however! Although the Snowdon Mountain Railway, which may or may not be considered a heritage line, definitely is.

 

[Sir Felix Pole]

Snowdon (Yr Wyddfa) and Cairngorm Railways. IOW, IOM and Alderney (historically Jersey and Guernsey too).

Campbelltown and Macrihanish historically.

 

[gazthomas]

The two lines in Madagascar. An already remote island with two lines that aren't connected to each other

 

[Baxenden Bank]

Many countries in Africa south of the Sahara had single lines from a port to the hinterland. Perhaps the 'national borders' exclusion excludes many.

Democratic Republic of Congo has or had several isolated lines / networks.
To the south-east the network links through to Zambia and Angola but elsewhere lines operate as portage links, sort of hop-scotching with navigable sections of river.

1) Mayumbe Line from Boma to Tshela 140km, lifted.

2a) Matadi - Kinshasha Railway links an ocean port with an inland port further up the Congo bypassing rapids, 420km mostly operational.
2b) Vicicongo Line 1,030km of 600mm linking Bumba (on Congo) to Mungbere.
2c) Great Lakes section 1 linking Kisangani and Ubundu, both on the Congo, bypassing the Stanley Falls, 125km operational.
After another river section you arrive at Kindu which is at the northern end of the main network.

3) Elsewhere the Kivu Line ran from Kalundu to Kamanyola, 94km lifted.

4) The Forminiere company had a line from Charlesville to Makumbi both on the Kasai River, 93km, lifted.

5) The Chemin de Fer De L'urua ran from the Lualaba River to mineral workings, 50km lifted.

6) The Ebonda Railway, also on The Congo.

Angola has/had five unconnected lines.

Liberia has three unconnected lines although two (of different gauge) come together at Monrovia.

Perhaps the most remote, and little heard of, is the 7km 600mm gauge portage railway on the Ubangi River in Central African Republic, abandoned when the river was 'dynamited' or perhaps less dramatically simply dredged.

Certainly in the curious, like a theme park ride, is the line at Hydroelectrica in Peru. The pictures in the report say it all!

Machu Picchu, power station line

From the Machu Picchu railway station the former railway line to Quillabamba follows the river Urubamba for a further 11 kilometers through the virgin forest to its present terminal at km 122 where the EGEMSA, Empresa de la Generación Eléctrica de Machupicchu, power station is situated. From there a funicular leads uphill to the surge tank (the water reservoir is above Machu Picchu at km 107). The funicular has a length of about 310 Meter. The inclination is 80 per cent, the horizontal length thus 250 Meter, the height difference 200 Meter. The two-axle car offers on four wooden benches space for a total of 12 passengers and has no outside hand railing and no emergency brake. The line serves for the transport of staff and of materials to the surge tank.

Source: Friends of Latin American Railways - Peru trip reports

 

[DanielB]

In Austria the line from Linz Urfahr to Aigen-Schlägl is no longer connected to any other line.

 

[Gag Halfrunt]

Mozambique has three separate Cape gauge (1067mm/3ft 6in) lines that are not connected within the country but are linked through neighbouring countries. There is also a defunct 762mm line.

Mozambique Ports and Railways - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Alfonso]

There are a couple of narrow gauge ones in Switzerland which meet funicular or cable cars but are isolated from the main network. One from les montuires to the base of the emmosson dam and another from grutschalp to murren

 

[Acathater]

The various now abandoned dock lines on the Falklands must have been among the most remote, though I saw a recent documentary on South Georgia which appeared to show the remains of a steam loco

 

[The Pelican]

Many countries in Africa south of the Sahara had single lines from a port to the hinterland. Perhaps the 'national borders' exclusion excludes many.

Democratic Republic of Congo has or had several isolated lines / networks.
To the south-east the network links through to Zambia and Angola but elsewhere lines operate as portage links, sort of hop-scotching with navigable sections of river.

1) Mayumbe Line from Boma to Tshela 140km, lifted.

2a) Matadi - Kinshasha Railway links an ocean port with an inland port further up the Congo bypassing rapids, 420km mostly operational.
2b) Vicicongo Line 1,030km of 600mm linking Bumba (on Congo) to Mungbere.
2c) Great Lakes section 1 linking Kisangani and Ubundu, both on the Congo, bypassing the Stanley Falls, 125km operational.
After another river section you arrive at Kindu which is at the northern end of the main network.

3) Elsewhere the Kivu Line ran from Kalundu to Kamanyola, 94km lifted.

4) The Forminiere company had a line from Charlesville to Makumbi both on the Kasai River, 93km, lifted.

5) The Chemin de Fer De L'urua ran from the Lualaba River to mineral workings, 50km lifted.

6) The Ebonda Railway, also on The Congo.

Angola has/had five unconnected lines.

Liberia has three unconnected lines although two (of different gauge) come together at Monrovia.

Perhaps the most remote, and little heard of, is the 7km 600mm gauge portage railway on the Ubangi River in Central African Republic, abandoned when the river was 'dynamited' or perhaps less dramatically simply dredged.

Certainly in the curious, like a theme park ride, is the line at Hydroelectrica in Peru. The pictures in the report say it all!



Source: Friends of Latin American Railways - Peru trip reports

Many of the lines in Africa seem like good examples, and the idea of portage railways on navigable rivers is a particularly interesting one- Canada had one near Huntsville in Ontario: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huntsville_and_Lake_of_Bays_Transportation_Company

Oregon in the US also had a portage railroad.

Portage railroads are interesting to classify because they seem to produce some of the most isolated railway sections anywhere.

The Peruvian example also looks very impressive- dams have some incredible funiculars, this video of a transformer being carried from Germany to Switzerland and installed in a dam is very impressive- the funicular is underground though:

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Snowdon (Yr Wyddfa) and Cairngorm Railways. IOW, IOM and Alderney (historically Jersey and Guernsey too).

Campbelltown and Macrihanish historically.

Yes- the Snowdon one started off with a national rail station near the bottom, but no tracks across the street, as far as I know. Thr Cairngorm railway has always been isolated.

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The two lines in Madagascar. An already remote island with two lines that aren't connected to each other

Similarly, Sumatra has three unconnected public railway systems, all 1,067 mm.

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In Austria the line from Linz Urfahr to Aigen-Schlägl is no longer connected to any other line.

This one always seems interesting, and I think there's a plan for a tram-train based connection to Linz' main station.

 

[Struner]

In Germany a small island called Borkum has a 7km long railway going from the harbour to the town.

it connects the village - Borkummers call it “Stadt” - with the pier. & on the mainland the ferry connects to the train, both in
NL (Eemshaven) & in DE (Emden). So that’s a truly international rail-ferry-rail connection.
The Hoek van Holland-Harwich ferry doesn’t count anymore, on the Dutch side it has been degraded to a kind of metro .
& there is more in some other Frisian islands on the DE side, a few of them are quite interesting, see https://www.inselbahn.de/index.php?nav=1000001&lang=1

 

[The Pelican]

"There are a couple of narrow gauge ones in Switzerland which meet funicular or cable cars but are isolated from the main network. One from.les montuires to the base of the emmosson dam and another from grutschalp to murren"

-I was thinking of the Murren one as an example- I think it was previously accessed by funicular, but that funicular part has been replaced by a cable car. Between Bolzano and the Ritten plateau, the cogwheel section of a cogwheel railway was replaced with a cable car, leaving the top part as an isolated tramway. The Oberweissbacher Bergbahn in Thuringia also has a flat upper section accessed by funicular railway.

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The various now abandoned dock lines on the Falklands must have been among the most remote, though I saw a recent documentary on South Georgia which appeared to show the remains of a steam loco

It's a shame nobody tried to build a serious railway on one of the ice-free parts of antarctica- I imagine if the Victorians had tried, it would have looked something like the Los Andes (Chile) - Mendoza (Argentina) Transandine railway, which often had problems with icy conditions. Similarly, the Furka Oberalp section in Switzerland required substantial rebuilding each year due to weather damage. By comparison, some pretty extreme places in Siberia ended up getting railways built to them- Lake Baikal in the 19th century, and Yakutsk more recently!

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The Waterford & Tramore Railway in the south of Ireland was never connected to the rest of the network. Not in a mountainous area however! Although the Snowdon Mountain Railway, which may or may not be considered a heritage line, definitely is.

That reminds me of the narrow gauge Cork and Muskerry light railway, which breifly ran along the same road as Cork's narrow gauge tram lines, and shared their tracks, unusually for the UK or Ireland.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 2 Aug 2026 ==

Quite a common genre of isolated lines are metro lines built to different standards to the rest of the network- for example, Milan Line M4, the Copenhagen M3/M4 ring and line vs the M1 and M2 lines. Some factories have also had isolated rail systems at various stages.

 

[BeeBus]

The railways in New Zealand developed as a lot of independent sections and it was surprisingly late that some were connected, for example the line from Picton down the East Coast of South Island to Christchurch wasn't completed until 1947 (I believe). Nature keeps having attempts to close it but it's always fought back! There was another line in New Zealand that remained isolated. Also in the South Island it ran inland from Nelson and was planned to join up with existing lines, but ran out of money well before it was completed, combined with a realisation that there was never going to be the traffic to justify it - the route being quite a difficult one to build..

 

[izvor]

In Austria the line from Linz Urfahr to Aigen-Schlägl is no longer connected to any other line.

This one always seems interesting, and I think there's a plan for a tram-train based connection to Linz' main station.

The connecting line, for stock transfers and goods, used to run through the streets of Linz so presumably the tram-train will follow these?

Another very isolated line that springs to mind is in Romania, from Oraviţa to Anina. It was part of the standard gauge network but the connecting line to Berzovia closed several years ago. The remaining part stays open as a tourist line into the hills. It was formerly narrow gauge and is a national scheduled monument. Shame you now have to get there by bus!

Most narrow gauge railways are by definition isolated, it's just a matter of degree. The Artouste Dam railway, high up in the French Pyrenees, must be one of the most extreme.

 

[gysev]

The Cumberland Mine Railroad in Pennsylvania is completely isolated. It runs for 17 miles between a mine and a barge-loading facilitie on the Monongahela River.

 

[ac6000cw]

The isolated 3 ft guage White Pass & Yukon Route, nowadays a tourist railway but originally opened in 1900 to provide access into the Yukon area during the Klondike gold-rush. It then became primarily a freight line for mineral traffic from the various mines in the area until 1982, before re-inventing itself a few years later as a tourist operation, primarily for cruise ship passengers.

It runs from Skagway on the coast of Alaska to Carcross in Canada (67 miles), crossing the international border at White Pass. It originally extended a further 40 miles to Whitehorse. It's always been completely isolated from the railways of both the US and Canada.

My video from a visit to it in 2012 (the train I was on turned around at White Pass, just after crossing the international border):

 

[Moritzplatz]

The German line that always looks to be the most isolated is the track from the mainland at Lüttmoorsiel to the Island ("Hallig") of Nordstrandischmoor. It is for use exclusively by island residents, their guests, and the coastal protection authorities responsible for maintaining the fragile Hallig environment.

Residents operate their own small powered rail vehicles, known as "Loren", across a 3.5km embankment on the Wadden Sea. In doing so, they are at risk of being divebombed by kitesurfers and (as in this video) slowed down by ducklings on the track.

Hidden in the tidal flats of the North Frisian Wadden Sea is one of Germany’s most unusual railway lines: the Lüttmoorsiel–Nordstrandischmoor island railway! In this video, we take a ride from the mainland at Lüttmoorsiel to the Island ("Hallig") of Nordstrandischmoor.

Of note, this is not a public railway and is not open to visitors. The line is for use exclusively by island residents, their guests, and the coastal protection authorities responsible for maintaining the fragile Hallig environment and coastline protection structures.

More than just a railway, the Lorenbahn is an essential piece of infrastructure that helps preserve the unique way of life on the Halligs. Originally built in 1933/34 to support coastal protection works, the railway once stretched approximately 7 kilometers across the Wadden Sea. Today, around 3.5 kilometers of track remain in operation along the Lorendamm embankment, providing a vital connection between the Hallig and the mainland.

Residents operate their own small powered rail vehicles, known as "Loren", to travel between Nordstrandischmoor and the mainland. Some historic vehicles were even equipped with sails, using the strong winds of the Wadden Sea for propulsion.

 

[AndrewE]

The various now abandoned dock lines on the Falklands must have been among the most remote, though I saw a recent documentary on South Georgia which appeared to show the remains of a steam loco

and similarly Ponta Delgada on (in?) the Azores. Broad gauge, disused but with original locos surviving.

Ponta Delgada and the Broad Gauge Harbour Railways

and https://sinfin.net/railways/world/acores.html

The Portuguese autonomous region of Açores (Azores) is a group of islands in the Atlantic Ocean. There are no active railways in the islands today, but there was at one time a broad (2140mm) gauge railway on the largest island, São Miguel.


The railway on São Miguel was used for the construction and subsequent maintenance of the breakwater that forms the south side of the harbour at Ponta Delgada. The original equipment was supplied by the British firm of J & C Rigby, contractors for the construction of the breakwater at Holyhead in North Wales; some of the equipment had previously been used on the Holyhead project and carried makers / owners plates indicating this. The broad gauge was chosen at Holyhead not from any desire or expectation of any connection with Brunel’s Great Western Railway, which used a similar gauge (the main line railway to Holyhead - the Chester & Holyhead Railway, later part of the London & North Western Railway - was built to standard gauge), but because it was considered better suited to carrying large blocks of stone from the quarry to the breakwater. A similar situation prevailed on Ponta Delgada, although of course in that instance there were no other railways concerned.

 

[ac6000cw]

America has at least one completely isolated railway taking coal to be burnt at a power station

The (disused since 2019) Black Mesa and Lake Powell Railroad near the Utah/Arizona border is one example, interestingly electrified from the outset at 50kV AC.

 

[MartinC]

The narrow gauge line Bilbao to León through the Picos de Europa

 

[Paul AC]

The narrow gauge line Bilbao to León through the Picos de Europa

That's very far from being isolated, as it shares Bilbao Concordia station with the line to Santander, Oveido and Ferrol, with multiple branches off it at Oviedo and Santander.

 

[izvor]

The German line that always looks to be the most isolated is the track from the mainland at Lüttmoorsiel to the Island ("Hallig") of Nordstrandischmoor. It is for use exclusively by island residents, their guests, and the coastal protection authorities responsible for maintaining the fragile Hallig environment.

That's just wonderful, many thanks for sharing.

 

[Cheshire Scot]

In Northern Norway there is a five mile rail line connecting the Ore mines with the port in Kirkenes (69 degrees north). The nearest rail line in Norway is over 300 miles away in Narvik whilst Rovaniemi in Finland is around 250 miles away, Kemijarivi slightly closer whilst Google Earth shows rail lines in Russia which are much closer than these.

Further north, high in the Arctic, on Svalbard there was a short railway connecting coal mines to Ny Alesund (79 degrees north and about 700 miles north of Kirkenes). A locomotive and some wagons have survived and are on display - I have a photograph somewhere.

 

[Sir Felix Pole]

In Northern Norway there is a five mile rail line connecting the Ore mines with the port in Kirkenes (69 degrees north). The nearest rail line in Norway is over 300 miles away in Narvik whilst Rovaniemi in Finland is around 250 miles away, Kemijarivi slightly closer whilst Google Earth shows rail lines in Russia which are much closer than these.

Further north, high in the Arctic, on Svalbard there was a short railway connecting coal mines to Ny Alesund (79 degrees north and about 700 miles north of Kirkenes). A locomotive and some wagons have survived and are on display - I have a photograph somewhere.

Also in Norway is the Thamshavnbanen (metre gauge) about 25 miles west of Trondheim, built to convey pyrites, but also passengers, from the interior to the port of Thamshavn. It was Norway's first electric railway, closing in 1974, but nearly all of its original length (15 miles) has been reopened as a heritage line with the original equipment.

 

[BeeBus]

Not so far mentioned back in the UK is the Spurn Head railway, built to connect the lighthouse with its supply base at Kilnsea - the railway also supported the defensive fortifications in the area. It employed a weird and wonderful set of stock including a couple of sail bogies, an Itala racing car converted for rail, a petrol railcar and several steam locos. One of these was an LNER Y8 tank loaned in 1940 whilst another was LORD MAYOR, a Hudswell Clarke 0-4-0ST which worked mainly as a contractor's loco including helping to build the Manchester Ship Canal and to dismantle the Liverpool Overhead Railway. It is currently on display at the Vintage Carriage Trust museum at Ingrow.

 

[The Pelican]

With narrow gauge lines, it's interesting to distinguish those which were built to a narrow gauge as they were expected to remain isolated, from those which are mainly isolated because they are narrow gauge. Both the Corris and the Ffestiniog were built as isolated railways exporting slate from the mountains to the sea, although both ended up connected to the standard gauge network, the Ffestiniog at both ends. Similarly, in Northern Spain and Switzerland, you can cross from one corner of the country to the other via narrow gauge railways in otherwise standard gauge areas- the Colorado railways were a similarly extensive network. Japan, Western Australia and Queensland, as well as Malaysia, Thailand and Mynamar ended up with whole networks being narrow gauge. India has regauged two narrow gauges to broad gauge, which was less than half of it's network in the fifties.

 

[Herriot2021]

Once complete, the Steensby Railway in northern Canada will become one of the more isolated rail systems on earth. It's a mine to port railway using modern equipment.

Baffinland

Canadian mining company, mining iron ore in the Qikiqtani region of North Baffin, Nunavut, Canada.

steensbyrailway.baffinland.com

The Steensby Railway will provide critical transportation infrastructure, which has always been foundational to the Mary River Project since it was approved by the Nunavut Impact Review Board in 2012. Once constructed, the railway will permit a larger output of iron ore from the mine to be transported to port for global shipping. The transition away from the trucking of iron ore will increase operating efficiencies and reduce operating costs for the Mary River Project, while also eliminating the dust and emissions currently generated by the trucking operations.


The Steensby Railway will consist of the following key components:

• 149-km mainline track, three mainline passing loops, arrival and departure tracks at Steensby Port and the Mine Site.
• two tunnels of approximately 1,000 m and 300 m lengths, each
• Approximately 42 bridges and at least 258 culverts
• locomotives and rail cars
• ore and freight loading/unloading facilities at the Mine Site and Steensby Port
• railway maintenance buildings and yard at Steensby Port
• ancillary facilities (e.g., communication towers)

 

[OVS Flatbottom]

That reminds me of the narrow gauge Cork and Muskerry light railway, which breifly ran along the same road as Cork's narrow gauge tram lines, and shared their tracks, unusually for the UK or Ireland.

I don't think the C&M actually shared the tram tracks - as far as I can recall there were separate parallel tracks for trains and trams on Western Road.

There was a plan to use the tram tracks for transferring wagons between the C&M and the city's other narrow-gauge railway, the Cork, Blackrock & Passage, and the gauge of the electric trams was certainly chosen with this in mind, but I don't believe it was ever done.

Incidentally, the C&M almost certainly qualifies as an isolated line, as it didn't connect directly with any other actual railways (the Great Southern & Western station at Mallow was a long way from the village and the C&M terminus, and the C&M's Western Road station in Cork city was at least three-quarters of a mile from any other railway).

It wasn't unique among Cork City's railways either - the Cork, Bandon & South Coast didn't connect to the national network until as late as 1912, and the Cork & Macroom Direct (like the CB&SC, broad gauge) started out in 1866 with a connection to the CB&SC but then removed it to build its own terminus in 1879 and remained completely isolated until grouping in 1925, apart from a period between 1918 and 1921 when it had an exchange siding with the CB&SC.

The CB&P may also count as isolated - a broad-gauge dock line passed by its Albert Street terminus from 1912, but I don't think there were any interchange facilities, and it never connected with any other line in its own earlier broad-gauge days.

On the island of Ireland, there was also the Belfast to Bangor line, which was isolated between 1965 and 1976 due to the closure of the Belfast Central Railway.