Below: GWR 1366 Class 0-6-0PT No. 1368 shunts freight wagons on the quayside at Weymouth on July 30, 1961.
R S GREENWOOD
IT is 25 years since the last train ran on the Weymouth Harbour Tramway and sadly more than three since its rails were finally ripped up, but the 1.25-mile line still holds a special place in the memory of many rail enthusiasts.
The tramway was opened by the Great Western Railway in October 1865, initially for freight to and from the harbour (and worked by horses until 1880), but then also for passengers from 1889 when the company took over shipping services to the Channel Islands – the GWR aiming to take traffic from its LSWR rival’s port at Southampton.