Portage railway

A portage railway is a short, and possibly isolated, section of railway used to bypass an unnavigable section of a river or to connect two bodies of water which are not directly linked. Cargo from waterborne vessels is unloaded, transferred onto conventional railroad rolling stock, and transported to the other end of the railway, where it is then unloaded and loaded onto another waterborne vessel. A portage railway is essentially the opposite of a train ferry.

Examples

The following are or were locations of portage railways:

Australia

• Victor Harbor to Goolwa – originally horse drawn – mouth of Murray River often silted up or was useless due to low water levels.
• the first railway in Queensland started at the inland river port of Ipswich rather than the capital of Brisbane to save money. Twenty years later, the line was extended to Brisbane.
• several rail lines terminated at river ports, such as Robertson, Echuca, Bourke, Morgan, Brewarrina

Brazil

• Madeira-Mamoré Railroad (365 km; 227 mi) along the huge rapids of upper Madeira

Canada

• Carillon and Grenville Railway
• Champlain and St. Lawrence Railroad
• Chignecto Ship Railway
• Huntsville and Lake of Bays Transportation Company
• Nosbonsing & Nipissing Railway
• White Pass and Yukon Route

Central African Republic

• Zinga to Mongo

China

• The Three Gorges Portage Railways, on each side of the Yangtze River in the Three Gorges Dam area (see Three Gorges Dam#Portage railways). Preliminary work on this project started in 2012.

Japan

• The Keage Incline Railway, 582 meters in length, once connected Lake Biwa Canal to the Nanzenji Boat Reservoir in the Kyoto Kamo River

Congo-Brazzaville

• Congo-Ocean Railway

Congo-Kinshasa

• Matadi–Kinshasa Railway
• Ubundu to Kisangani, see Great lakes line first section

England

• Cromford and High Peak Railway connected Cromford Canal to the Peak Forest Canal

Greece

• Diolkos near Corinth Canal

Laos

• Don Det – Don Khon narrow gauge railway

Panama

• Panama Railway

Russia

• Krasnoyarsk hydroelectric dam ship elevator

United States

• Allegheny Portage Railroad
• Morris Canal
• New Castle and Frenchtown Turnpike and Rail Road
• Tuscumbia, Courtland and Decatur Railroad

Czechia

• Narrow gauge line on Kamýk Dam used for transport of canoes and flatboats over the dam.

References