Dungeness: The Strange Abandoned Tracks of a Forgotten Fishermen’s Railway

(Image: Loz Pycock; long-abandoned narrow gauge railway at Dungeness)

Writing on urban75, Mike Slocombe noted a curious set of abandoned narrow-gauge railway tracks stretching across the shingle beaches of Dungeness, Kent, on the south coast of England. Today, Dungeness headland is served by the wonderful Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway, which plies the romantic and eerie Romney Marsh with all its romantic history. But these long-rusted tracks, at points built-up on wooden sleepers, are something else entirely.

Mike writes: “Buckled and broken beyond repair, some of the rails had rusted straight through, and it certainly looked like they hadn’t carried any traffic for a very long time.

(Image: Roger Marks)

“Asking around locally, I was told that there was no known history of these lines ever connecting with either of the two railway lines, so they must have been run in isolation, with the trucks being pushed by hand, cranked or pulled by horse power.”

(Image: hannah)

It turns out, however, that the somewhat esoteric tracks were among several abandoned Dungeness railways once used by fishermen to haul their catch across the shingle to the road, from where it would presumably have been distributed throughout the local villages.

(Image: Roger Marks)

According to Ian Jolly, via an update on urban75, several 2 ft gauge and one 15 inch gauge lines had been built during the 19th century, the latter of which is understood to have been in use as late as 1978.

(Image: Maurice Brooks)

Today, the derelict tracks of the abandoned Dungeness railway offer an intriguing glimpse back in time to the roaring fishing industry that once dominated the towns and villages of coastal Britain.

(Image: Ray Wewerka)

And like the mysterious Northumberland tunnel known locally as the Marshall Meadows Seaweed Railway, the forgotten fishermen’s line at Dungeness reflects the wealth of Victorian railway heritage that lingers on, much of it charmingly obscure.