More on the Hythe Pier Railway from
Atlas Obscura including some lovely pictures
The world's oldest operational public pier railway has shuttled seagoing commuters from ship to shore since 1909.
The longest-operating public pier railway on the globe chugs along a thin wooden strip on the English coast. It shuffles tourists and locals alike across an estuary, adding a nostalgic 20th-century twist to their modern-day commutes.
Once driven by hand, the rickety carriages of this 2,100-foot-long pier railroad are currently pulled by two miniature electric locomotives, which began their relentless rattlings along the wooden boardwalk in 1922.
Though endearing, these dinky narrow-gauge trains have a dark side to their history. They were built for a World War I mustard gas factory in 1917, then moved to the Hythe Pier when the war ended.
The pier, the country’s seventh longest, was built in 1881. Unlike many pleasure piers beloved of the British seaside scene, it still has a very practical purpose as the embarkation point for a short ferry service to Southampton. It protrudes over the muddy estuary shallows into deeper waters, allowing the boat to berth in all tidal conditions.
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The geography of the area means - with the deep inlet of Southampton Water - means that commutes from roosts in Fawley, Hythe, Dibden and Marchwood to daytime haunts in Southampton are short for crows, and seagulls too. But commutes are long or complicated for us humans. If we go "direct across" , there is the requirement to change from land transport to railway, railway to boat, then boat to onward land transport unless we live or work very near the boat. By road, it's long and congested - by car it can take a while, and the bus does not have a reputation for speed either.
Map shows the pier (red), ferry (magenta), current operating passenger railways (black) and the freight line to the gates of Fawley oil refinery (blue). The rail routes are a little diagrammatic (I don't have the mapping skills of other members here ...) - in other words they may be a few hundred yards out in places. Background is Open Map Data.
