Great Western Coffee Shop

On 2nd May 1999 - the very last (special) train over the Weymouth Quay branch / Weymouth Harbour Railway and a good write-up summary on WikiPedia.  With an element of sadness, I am posting this memorial "On this day" thread in Railway History as I don't think it's practical for it to come back in any form

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weymouth_Harbour_Tramway (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weymouth_Harbour_Tramway)

There are double plus plenty of threads on the forum on this - I am just rushing around to place a starter on this and a couple of other threads this morning.   Unquestionably no longer a Town Councillor, I still / now have a huge amount of stuff to do and catch up on that I have been remiss in doing over the past 4 years ....

I have fond memories of the Tramway fro  my childhood days. A day trip to Weymouth always had to include watching the boat train pass along the streets. In those days it was hauled by tank engines with the locks changed just north of the main station with the addition of a banker up the bank to Bincombe box

This is what the tramway route might have been! An 1856 scheme put forward by the WSWR. The source is a hand drawn map in the National Archives that I came across when researching the line's history.

john Lucking in his book on the Weymouth Harbour Tramway (OPC 1986) writes this:-

the meeting of the Council resolved to render assistance to facilitate the conveyance of goods from the quay to the station except having a tramroad in front of the Esplanade or in the public streets(p7)

This plan explains why that decision was made. Imagine 1850s Weymouth with trains along the sea front!