The Bell Rock railway

[Lost property]

One that even the most dedicated rail enthusiast / historian may never have heard of !

OK, this is being a shade tongue in cheek and no doubt the pedantic will declare it wasn't a railway, but that was how the excellent programme " Secrets of the Lighthouse " defined the method of transporting 1 tonne granite blocks from ships to the lighthouse during construction.

The series "The Architecture the Railways Built " is fascinating in it's own right, but, at times, the lighthouse construction surpasses this.

 

[Rescars]

Perhaps the best way of getting between a rock and a hard place - or more accurately, between a hard place and a rock!

 

[Mcr Warrior]

More at the link below, for anyone that's interested. Suppose having a railway system would have made the blocks slightly more manoeuvrable, once they'd been offloaded from the supply boats at low tide.

Bellrock.org.uk : Lighthouse : The Lighthouse Railways

Extract...

Due to the heavy seas, and especially after storms, they (the rails) had to be continually repaired, so (Robert) Stevenson had them rebuilt and strengthened between the years of 1815-1819. They were made at the Shotts Irons Works in Central Scotland.

P.S. The Bell Rock is some eleven miles offshore from the Scottish coast (east of Arbroath). And there's a fascinating lighthouse museum on the coast, located between the harbour and the Arbroath football ground, for anyone who's ever in the town.

 

[ian1944]

I suspect that many a lighthouse, whether on an island or otherwise accessible only by sea, had a railway of some sort to transport blocks from landing stage to site. Certainly the Firth of Forth island of Fidra did, described as a cable-hauled narrow gauge railway (would hardly be loco-hauled standard gauge). Fidra is thought by some to be the prototype for Treasure Island, certainly RLS spent some of his childhood there.

 

[norbitonflyer]

I suspect that many a lighthouse, whether on an island or otherwise accessible only by sea, had a railway of some sort to transport blocks from landing stage to site. Certainly the Firth of Forth island of Fidra did, described as a cable-hauled narrow gauge railway (would hardly be loco-hauled standard gauge). Fidra is thought by some to be the prototype for Treasure Island, certainly RLS spent some of his childhood there.

There are the remains of such railways at the North lighthouse on Lundy, for example, as well as the quarries on the east side of the island. The lighthouse railway was used for delivering supplies to the lighthouse, as well as during its construction

 

[Pigeon]

The Flannan Isles lighthouse cable-hauled railway had a choice of two routes and a real junction with actual points.

 

[Ayrshire Roy]

Ailsa Craig had 2 different railways on it.
One for coal and supplies to the gasworks and lighthouse and another for quarried stone.
It was 3ft gauge and was cable and horse hauled.
It has a junction and a siding also.
A lot of it survives today.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Be right in saying that the track gauge on the Bell Rock was 2ft 6ins?

Presumably long since dismantled / washed away?

 

[702]

Inchcolm Island in the Forth also had a narrow gauge railway, for military purposes as the island was fortified during WW1 and these were used again in WW2, but whether it was used for construction purposes, moving supplies and munitions around, or both, I'm not sure. Here is a few of an incline taken from the tourist boat.

 

[Buzby]

I recall there was a noticeboard on Inchcolm explaining it was used only to transport shells from the landing stage to the gun turrets on top of the hill. I gathered it was cable hauled, but was quickly abandoned after hostilities ended.

 

[Rescars]

If we are expanding this thread to include railways on very small, islands, the cable-hauled line on St Michael's Mount in Cornwall continues in regular use AIUI.