Railways in
Jersey
Peckett 0-4-0ST locomotive Kestrel hauling a train of former North London Railway coaches
at the Pallot Steam, Motor & General Museum
Jersey is one of the Channel Islands. Together with a number of small, mainly uninhabited islands, it forms the Bailiwick of Jersey which is a British Crown Dependency.
The Jersey railway opened in 1870 as a standard (4ft 8½in, 1435mm) gauge line from the capital, St Helier, to St Aubin. Another company started construction on a 3ft 6in (1067mm) gauge line from St Aubin to La Moye, but went bankrupt before its completion. The unfinished line was taken over by the original company, which converted its line to 3ft 6in (1067mm) gauge in order to provide a through route from St Helier to La Moye. The combined line was later extended to Corbière, giving a total route length of 8½ miles (13.7km). The line closed in 1926.
A separate standard gauge line, the Jersey Eastern Railway, opened in 1873 between St Helier and Grouville, later extended to Gorey, a total route length of 6¾ miles (10.8km). It closed in 1929.
During World War II, the occupying German forces laid down a number railways of 600mm and metre gauge for military purposes. These utilised in part the trackbeds of both of the closed railways. These military lines were dismantled after the liberation.
Several of the stations of the original lines survive as public buildings. Various sections of the former trackbeds are now footpaths.
In the 1990s, the Pallot museum opened a short passenger carrying railway in its grounds, using historic equipment from the UK mainland.
© 2019
Glyn Williams
Photo image © Simon Robinson,
2009 / CC-BY-SA-3.0 & GFDL-1.2
