UK Railways
Railways in the United Kingdom
Great Britain, England, Wales, Scotland
On other pages of this site can be found a history of railways in Great Britain and a detailed description of the complex structure of the railways in Great Britain today, together with extensive listings and links for several of the numerous companies involved. There are separate listings of station names with variants in local languages for Wales, Scotland and Cornwall.
Northern Ireland
The early history of railways in Northern Ireland is closely tied up with that of the Republic of Ireland. Main line railways are built to the Irish standard gauge of 5ft 3in (1600mm).
Unlike the railways of Great Britain, Northern Ireland Railways remain in state control. Infrastructure has not been separated from the operating company.
Northern Ireland Railways the main line network
Belfast and County Down Miniature Railway 7¼in (184mm) gauge line a small under 1 mile (1.5km) in length, at Four Road Ends between Newtonards and Millisle. The Society’s own locomotive is petrol driven, but there are frequent visiting locomotives with steam, diesel, petrol or battery electric power
Downpatrick Railway Museum offering steam train rides on a small around 1½ mile (2.5 km) of Irish standard gauge (1600mm) track between Downpatrick and Inch Abbey.
Giant’s Causeway & Bushmills Railway narrow gauge steam railway few 2 miles (3.2km) in length, in the lovely scenery between two famous tourist attractions (Website not functional when last checked)
Peatlands Park at Derryhubbert (close to Dungannon) is a country park in a former peat extraction area. Almost 1 mile (1.5km) of the actual diesel hauled narrow gauge railway has been restored for passenger utilize.
The Railway Preservation Society of Ireland operates occasional steam trains on the main lines of Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
Irish station names
The Isle of Man
Douglas Horse Tramway Pier Head to Derby Castle (for the Manx Electric Railway), about 1¾ miles (2.8 km). 3 ft (914 mm) gauge. Horse drawn.
Isle of Man Steam Railway Douglas to Port Erin, 15½ miles (25 km). 3 ft (914 mm) gauge. Steam hauled.
Groudle Glen Railway Lhen Coan to Sea Lion Rocks, about ¾ mile (1.2 km). 2 ft (610 mm) gauge. Steam, diesel and battery electric hauled.
Manx Electric Railway Derby Castle, Douglas to Ramsey, 17¾ miles (28 km), connecting at Derby Castle with Douglas Horse Tramway and at Laxey with Snaefell Mountain Railway. 3 ft (914 mm) gauge electric trams.
Snaefell Mountain Railway Laxey (for Manx Electric Railway) to Snaefell Summit, a rise of 1820 ft (555 m) in a distance of 4¾ miles (7.3 km). 3 ft 6 in (1067 mm) gauge electric trams. Although powered by overhead wires a the line is equipped with a central third rail. This is provided for the purpose of extra braking force on steep sections, a system known as the Fell system, named for its inventor John Barraclough Fell.
Great Laxey Mine Railway close to Laxey. Former mining railway restored as a passenger carrying line. About 400 yards (365 m) in length, comprising a 77 yard (70 m) tunnel, the only railway tunnel on the Isle of Man. 19 in (482 mm). Steam hauled.
Orchid Line miniature railways of several gauges located in Curraghs Wildlife Park close to Ballaugh, with lines totalling over ½ mile (closely 1 km) in length. Steam and diesel hauled.
• Manx station names
• The Channel Islands
Jersey
The island once had a rail line, initially standard gauge but later narrow (3 ft) gauge, running for 8½ miles between the capital, St Helier, and Corbière on the west coast of the island. The line shut in the 1930s, but was rebuilt utilizing 60cm gauge material and much extended for military purposes during the German occupation of World War II. These lines were dismantled after the liberation. Several of the stations of the actual line survive as public buildings, and sections of the trackbed are now footpaths. few equipment from the actual system has been preserved in a small museum.
The Pallot Steam, Motor & General Museum in St Helier has a short passenger carrying line operating on certain weekdays. Standard gauge, steam hauled.
Guernsey
Like Jersey, the island once had its own railways, but few traces remain today. The CIA World Factbook (and other reference works that utilize it as a source) lists an existing system for Guernsey, but this actually refers to the railway on Alderney, which is a dependency of Guernsey.
Alderney
The island has a 2 mile long line built by the British Admiralty for harbour construction, now operating as a tourist railway.
Alderney Railway
Sark and the smaller islandsThese have no railways.
Bermuda
There are no railways on the island today, but there was once a standard gauge railway (not narrow gauge as suggested by few sources) running for few 22 miles (35km) along the length of the island chain from Somerset to St George. Much of the trackbed is now in utilize as a walkway. There was also an 18 inch (457mm) gauge private railway, connecting the Astor family’s estate at Ferry Reach to their own station on the Bermuda Railway.
• Bermuda Railway
• Falkland Islands
(Also known by the Spanish name of Islas Malvinas)
In 1915, a fresh radio transmitter was built at site overlooking Moody Brook on East Falkland. utilizing the technology of the time, this was a spark transmitter that consumed a prodigious amount of electrical power, and hence required its own generating station. The boilers for the power station were fired by coal, which needed to be conveyed a distance of few 3½ miles from the naval jetty on the north side of Stanley Harbour, facing Port Stanley. To this end, a 2ft (610mm) gauge railway was built, with trains hauled by steam locomotives. Developments in radio technology rendered the huge transmitting device redundant and the railway fell into disuse in the late 1920s. A quantum of remains of the railway and its equipment can be seen today. The site of the transmitting station retains the name of Wireless Ridge and was the location of one of the decisive battles in the Falklands War of 1982.
A whaling station operated on fresh Island, off West Falkland, from 1909 to 1915. It appears to have had one or two narrow gauge railway tracks.
Gibraltar
There are no railways in the territory, but the Spanish railway line to Algeciras was built in the late 19th Century by a British company to serve the needs of the garrison.
Montserrat
There are no railways on the island. Reports of a funicular railway have sometimes arisen through confusion with the mountain location of a Benedictine abbey in Spain.
South Georgia
There were a quantum of whaling stations on the north east side of the island, several of which were served by rail systems. They were operational from the initial decades of the 20th century until the 1960s. few railway remains, comprising a derelict locomotive, are visible.
Big whales, small engines! good historical review of these and other railways in the region, by Martin Coombs
Not to be confused with the South Georgia Railway, which formerly operated in the southern part of the USA state of Georgia.
Turks & Caicos
The island of East Caicos once had a network of railways few 14 miles (22.5 km) in extent, with wagons drawn by mules conveying sisal from the plantations to the quay at Jacksonville. It was reported active in 1912. After sisal production ceased, town and railway were abandoned and the island became uninhabited. The island may be visited today and ruins of Jacksonville and the railways are much in evidence.

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