Isolated, and Very Isolated, railways

[Sir Felix Pole]

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.

Yes, the C & M had a separate track on the Western Road in Cork to that of the tramway.

There was also the Dublin and Blessington Steam Tramway (closed 1932), which was classed as a railway. Its Dublin terminus was at Terenure, a long way out of the city-centre. It connected with the city trams, but there was no through running.

There were, of course, some completely independent and very isolated Bord na Móna peat railway systems in several parts of the country.

 

[52290]

One line that I always wondered what it was there for when studying my rail map of Australia was the line from Croydon to Normanton in Queensland. Totally isolated from the the rest of the Queensland network it runs diesel railcar service called the Gulflander.

 

[AndrewE]

One line that I always wondered what it was there for when studying my rail map of Australia was the line from Croydon to Normanton in Queensland. Totally isolated from the the rest of the Queensland network it runs diesel railcar service called the Gulflander.

would there have been lots of completely isolated narrow-gauge sugar-cane railways in tropical Australia too?

 

[Rescars]

Historically, Holyhead Breakwater would presumably merit a mention, not least as the final outpost of the 7 foot gauge. There must have been a significant number of isolated narrow gauge lines/tramways around the UK and elsewhere which connected quarries or mines with a transhipment jetty or pier. Although far from being remote, the Volks Electric Railway in Brighton is isolated from the rest of the network.

 

[The Pelican]

One line that I always wondered what it was there for when studying my rail map of Australia was the line from Croydon to Normanton in Queensland. Totally isolated from the the rest of the Queensland network it runs diesel railcar service called the Gulflander.

Many of the Queensland railways also started as isolated lines joining an inland area ( sometimes a river drainage basin) to the coast- Wikipedia suggests that the state had 11 seperate isolated railways at one point! This was because, like in the modern Pilbara lines, lots of the goods sent off by train was either being sent by coastal ship to New South Wales and Victoria, or exported from Australia to another country.

The Croydon Normanton line was supposed to be connected to the Atherton Tablelands route somewhere like Forsayth, I think, which would have connected it to Cairns, and then later on to the rest of Australia. I don't think any major railway has ever reached the Gulf of Carpenteria in Australia, and indeed the only rail route between Darwin to it's west and Cairns to it's east is via South Australia, thousands of miles away! Someone proposed an "Iron Boomerang" to join the Queensland coalfields to the Pilbara, or more modestly join the Mount Isa line to the Darwin Adelaide line somewhere around Tennant Creek.

(Incidentally, Victorian explorers' more favourable expectations of what was to be found in Northern Australia, including an inland sea resembling a mini-medditeranian, are very interesting)

 

[edwin_m]

I recall seeing a TV programme where there was a piece of track about 100 metres long and one wagon, and goods were placed on it because there was some kind of tax credit if it was transported by rail. North west of the USA I thin.

 

[The Pelican]

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 Baffin Island railway will be one of the most impressive routes in the world- looks like it's another 917 miles north of the nearest part of the Canadian national network, on Hudson's Bay at Churchill, Manitoba. A good indication of what an Antarctic rail route might have looked like!

 

[calopez]

There were/are several remote and isolated lines in South America. Apart from the Rio Turbio - Rio Gallegos line (my favourite, and, until quite recently, the most southerly railway in the world), there were the Madeira - Mamore in Amazonian Brasil; the Quebracho lines of the Paraguayan Chaco; the standard gauge Arica (Chile) - Tacna (Peru) (of course, Arica is also served by the La Paz - Arica railway, but that's metre gauge and there's no connection between them as far as I am aware); and, no doubt, many others.

Not to mention the modern Ferrocarril Austral Fueguino, outside Ushuaia, which now is he most southerly in the world!

 

[eldomtom2]

I recall seeing a TV programme where there was a piece of track about 100 metres long and one wagon, and goods were placed on it because there was some kind of tax credit if it was transported by rail. North west of the USA I thin.

This was the Bayside Canadian Railway in New Brunswick. The intent was to evade a ban on using foreign-flagged vessels to transport goods between two US points by using an exemption in the law for routes that transported goods partially using Canadian rail lines. However, a judge found in 2022 that loading a truck onto a train, moving the train forwards and backwards, and then unloading the truck at the exact same place it was loaded did not count as "transportation" for the purposes of the law. With the loophole thus closed, the line was promptly closed and dismantled.

 

[MarcVD]

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.

Then you can also mention the Deseret Power Railroad, which is still operational, uses the same 50 kV electrification scheme, and uses the same GE E60-C electric locomotives.

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And I think also métro line 5 in Tehran, which uses double deckers and electric locomotives powered by overhead lines, as opposed to all other lines that are third rail EMUs. There are interchange stations but I don't believe they are connected track wise, as electrification and loading gauge are wildly different.

 

[181]

I don't think anyone has yet mentioned the Isle of Wight -- its railways have always been isolated from the national network (was there ever a train ferry or did any rail vehicles transferred to or from the island have to be craned on or off ships before road low loaders were available?), and its two remaining railways have no physical track connection with each other.

The Baffin Island railway will be one of the most impressive routes in the world- looks like it's another 917 miles north of the nearest part of the Canadian national network, on Hudson's Bay at Churchill, Manitoba.

Not nearly as remote as that, but Newfoundland had a railway, on a different gauge from those of the mainland, and Vancouver island may still have some rail operations, connected to the mainland by train ferry; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Island_Rail_Corridor says 'As of 2018, the only regularly operated track left is a truncated 10-mile section in the Nanaimo area, from Welcox Yard at the waterfront to Wellington siding, to serve the Superior Propane spur in north Nanaimo. In addition, some customers have their goods transloaded to trucks within Welcox Yard.'

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

There were/are several remote and isolated lines in South America. Apart from the Rio Turbio - Rio Gallegos line (my favourite, and, until quite recently, the most southerly railway in the world), there were the Madeira - Mamore in Amazonian Brasil; the Quebracho lines of the Paraguayan Chaco; the standard gauge Arica (Chile) - Tacna (Peru) (of course, Arica is also served by the La Paz - Arica railway, but that's metre gauge and there's no connection between them as far as I am aware); and, no doubt, many others.

Not to mention the modern Ferrocarril Austral Fueguino, outside Ushuaia, which now is he most southerly in the world!

The 'Railways of the Far South' website may be of interest to readers of this thread: https://www.railwaysofthefarsouth.co.uk/

 

[Rescars]

Perhaps we should include the shortlived Grand Crimean Central Railway built in 1855 during the Crimean War by the United Kingdom to support the siege of Sevastopol. The line was built at cost by Brassey, Peto and Betts with absolutely everything (track, rolling stock, engineers and navvies etc) sent out from the UK on a flotilla of ships. The line was completed with remarkable speed in seven weeks, the first trains running just three weeks after construction started. It illustrates what could be done back in the day before progress intervened!

 

[The Pelican]

Perhaps we should include the shortlived Grand Crimean Central Railway built in 1855 during the Crimean War by the United Kingdom to support the siege of Sevastopol. The line was built at cost by Brassey, Peto and Betts with absolutely everything (track, rolling stock, engineers and navvies etc) sent out from the UK on a flotilla of ships. The line was completed with remarkable speed in seven weeks, the first trains running just three weeks after construction started. It illustrates what could be done back in the day before progress intervened!

It's good Lord Raglan wasn't the signalman, or they might have had a lot of signals passed at a danger!

 

[30907]

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 Borkum line is double track throughout, and requires 3 trains in service at certain times of day (and some of those load very heavily!). Wangerooge is DB and tidal, Langeoog is the third survivor with ferry connection.

 

[Struner]

The Borkum line is double track throughout, and requires 3 trains in service at certain times of day (and some of those load very heavily!). Wangerooge is DB and tidal, Langeoog is the third survivor with ferry connection.

I have been on all three of them, plus Spiekeroog before it was closed down. The Wangerooge one is the most spectacular by far, it will not run when the there’s to much water at HW - this once happened to us

 

[30907]

I have been on all three of them, plus Spiekeroog before it was closed down. The Wangerooge one is the most spectacular by far, it will not run when the there’s to much water at HW - this once happened to us

Spiekeroog has some sort of horse-tram on part of the old system IIRC.

 

[181]

The Wangerooge one is the most spectacular by far, it will not run when the there’s to much water at HW - this once happened to us

How much is too much water? -- this video from 2011 suggests it can cope (or at least used to) with more than you might expect:

 

[Shimbleshanks]

For around a year in the early 1970s, the railways on the Isle of Anglesey (Ynys Mon) were isolated from the rest of the network following the Britannia Bridge fire. Most of the rolling stock trapped on the island was shipped over to the mainland (I think via Barrow in Furness) but they retained at least one Type 2 diesel and four mark 1 coaches to operate local services between Holyhead and Llanfairpwllgwyngyll, which was reopened for the purpose (and was later permanently reopened again). There was even a bit of freight - sulphur shipped into Holyhead and then railed from there to the Octel works in Amlwch, reversing at Gaerwen. Normally, it would have been shipped to Mostyn and railed from there to Amlwch. Possibly the first and last time there was a significant freight flow within Anglesey.

 

[Transilien]

What about the tramway in Tenerife? No other rail based transport in the Canary Islands, combined with the lack of rail transport in the Sahara makes this tram line one of the most islolated in the world.

 

[Lloyds siding]

There's the Holyhead Breakwater railway, built in 1848 to broad gauge to haul construction stone from Holyhead mountain along the breakwater (the longest in the U.K.). It remained for maintenance purposes and was converted to standard gauge in 1913, finally abandoned in the mid 1980s.

 

[Struner]

How much is too much water? -- this video from 2011 suggests it can cope (or at least used to) with more than you might expect:

[…]

we had to wait until it got as low as that…, yes is was quite fascinating

 

[JonasB]

Stockholm has two isolated local railways. Roslagsbanan, a narrow gauge railway that serves the northeastern suburbs. And Saltsjöbanan to the southeastern suburbs. Saltsjöbanan is standard gauge but not connected to the national rail network and electrified with 750 V overhead wire.

 

[The Pelican]

Stockholm has two isolated local railways. Roslagsbanan, a narrow gauge railway that serves the northeastern suburbs. And Saltsjöbanan to the southeastern suburbs. Saltsjöbanan is standard gauge but not connected to the national rail network and electrified with 750 V overhead wire.

I went on Roslagsbanan last year, it was really impressive how quickly the trains accelerate, and interesting to see a small isolated network with several branches. It was also good fun seeing Stockholms östra, a secondary terminal station.

 

[JonasB]

I went on Roslagsbanan last year, it was really impressive how quickly the trains accelerate, and interesting to see a small isolated network with several branches. It was also good fun seeing Stockholms östra, a secondary terminal station.

Roslagsbanan is very interesting in many ways. An odd gauge (891 mm) but has pretty modern standard, mostly double track, modern signalling and continuous welded track. But north of Vallentuna it gets very rural and the northern end is the small village Kårsta.

 

[Flying_Turtle]

Stockholm has two isolated local railways. Roslagsbanan, a narrow gauge railway that serves the northeastern suburbs. And Saltsjöbanan to the southeastern suburbs. Saltsjöbanan is standard gauge but not connected to the national rail network and electrified with 750 V overhead wire.

As does Madrid, which has a narrow gauge line to Los Cotos, currently closed for refurbishment, the C9 line. No narrow gauges around for hundreds of miles

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There's the Holyhead Breakwater railway, built in 1848 to broad gauge to haul construction stone from Holyhead mountain along the breakwater (the longest in the U.K.). It remained for maintenance purposes and was converted to standard gauge in 1913, finally abandoned in the mid 1980s.

And what about this one in the middle of the Atlantic in Brunnel Gauge? (please use a page translator from Portuguese to English)

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 9 Aug 2026 ==

Also speaking about the Atlantic but, in this case, the Southern part:
Sao Tomé and Príncipe Islands:

Railways in São Tomé & Príncipe

www.sinfin.net

 

[The Pelican]

Defining what counts as "isolated" is an interesting one- the Waterloo and City line used to have a dedicated lift to the mainline network, and has more recently hired in a crane to move the carriages. Similarly, some lines are connected to other railways by train ferry, some by normal ferry (e.g. the Isle of Wight network), and some by reasonably regular shipping. The Alaska railroad has transferred railcars and locos via railroad barges, a bit like a ferry service. It's interesting to compare with the various pre-WW2 railways which had lots of equipment built abroad, but were obviously attached to ports with frequent sea lines between those places- certainly in the 19th century, after the steamship and before the internal combustion car, the coasts of many countries were much faster to reach than the inland areas- famously, in the early 19th century, it was faster to travel from London to California than New York to California, because both routes went by sea, and both rounded Cape Horn, therefore having to sail a long way east to round eastern Brazil.

So, excluding 1.Railways Easily Accessible by sea 2. Railways easily accessible by major road, I wonder what's left?

The Portage railways seem like a good example, transferring loads between river sections- an interesting place where a canal might represent an improved solution conpared to a railway.

Similarly, this page: http://www.llechicymru.info/ITransport.english.htm
suggests that slate wagons for internal transport fed into pack horse transport for export from the Welsh slate quarries in the very early 19th century, so there must have been at least some mines which have used a railway internally, then used a horse to export their products. Presumably some gold or silver mines might have exported their products by hand.

Another could be funiculars or cable cars with neither end accessible by road- I assume a few of these must have existed in parts of the world with large mountain populations, but it would probably have made them harder to construct. The above site suggests that inclines were used very early on in Welsh quarries, so these might have fed pack horse based export.

 

[Rescars]

The Portage railways seem like a good example, transferring loads between river sections- an interesting place where a canal might represent an improved solution conpared to a railway.

The Bude Canal was an interesting variant, with wheeled tub boats coupled together making up " trains" on the canal sections. The tubs were transferred individually between levels by being drawn up and down inclined planes on rails by chains, most powered by waterwheels. There were seven of these isolated inclined sections on the system.

 

[AndrewE]

The Bude Canal was an interesting variant, with wheeled tub boats coupled together making up " trains" on the canal sections. The tubs were transferred individually between levels by being drawn up and down inclined planes on rails by chains, most powered by waterwheels. There were seven of these isolated inclined sections on the system.

That is like the Elblag canal in Poland, where the current passenger boats are hauled up and down a succession of quite big inclined planes on wheeled cradles, again powered by waterwheels. It was restored about a decade or two ago and is very well worth visiting.
Lots of videos online, including some archive from the 1930's of boats carrying timber, its original use.

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And what about this one in the middle of the Atlantic in Brunnel Gauge? (please use a page translator from Portuguese to English)

See post #20...

 

[AM9]

For around a year in the early 1970s, the railways on the Isle of Anglesey (Ynys Mon) were isolated from the rest of the network following the Britannia Bridge fire. Most of the rolling stock trapped on the ilsand was shipped over to the mainland (I think via Barrow in Furness) but they retained at least one Type 2 diesel and four mark 1 coaches to operate local services between Holyhead and Llanfairpwllgwyngyll, which was reopened for the purpose (and was later permanently reopened again. There was even a bit of freight - sulphur shipped into Holyhead and then railed from there to the Octel works in Amlwch, reversing at Gaerwen.

In a similar vein, the MTA Staten Island line is completely disconnected from all lines in the 5 Boroughs of NYC. I imagine that at one time there might have been a link to the (now) freight lines that cross from New Jersey via the Arthur Kill Vertical Lift bridge, but the nearest points on the surviving two arms of that network are both nearly 5Km from the MTA line.

 

[70014IronDuke]

Don't think anyone has mentioned the line around Eregli, in Turkey yet.

It is, or was, south-west of Zonguldak, on the Black Sea coast (I now see, looking at the map - I hadn't realised it's location, or had forgotten the Sea bit!)

I'm not sure if it carried passengers, at least to a timetable. (Not that timetables used to mean much in Turkey 50 years ago.) It may have been purely for coal trains from the mine(s) to the coast, I suppose.

I think we got a bus from Adapazari and stopped off to photograph it one year. IIRC, it had one TCDD locomotive allocated to it, so it was part of the national network.