What islands around the world have, or in the past have had their own railroad?
Modeling the "Fargo Area Rapid Transit" in O scale 3 rail.
Depends on what you mean by "their own." Newfoundland was a good case. Entirely separate narrow gauge operation, until taken over by CN when it moved from Crown Colony status to Canadian Province. There were car ferries to the mainland and change of trucks even before that, however. Budt Prince Edward Island always was a Province, from Canada's start. The standard gauge railroad was connected only by train ferry (with the loco on board) and was part of CN. Vabcouver Island, similar. Cuba has two nationalized railroads, its main railroad system, diesel, and Heshey, electric interurban in character. For the Dominican Republic, see the latest(?) trains about a narrow gauge sugarcane hauling railroad. Similar railroads were located in Peurto Rico and Bermuda and St. Kitts, with the latter now a tourist passenger railroad. Neville Island at Pattisburgh had an industrial railroad of its own and may still have it. Obviously, Manhattan Island has the New York City Transit Authority, Metro North, the Long Island Railroad, Port Authority Trans-Hudson, and Amtrak, but all obviously operate outside the island as well. (New Jersey Transit is a tentant on Amtrak in Manhattan and so does not count.) The Italian railroad system has at least one line in Sicily. The Isle of Man has the Douglas horsecar waterfront line, the Manx Electric Railway (a perfectly preserved 1897 interurban line), the Snaifel Mountain electric line, and the steam-operated line to Canbeltwon. The Isle of Wite has a third-rail electric line operated by ex-Underground trains. All of Japan's islands have railroads. Tauwab has high speed passenger trains. Manilla in Hawaii has an elevated light rial line. I'll stop for now.
Wow!
Other islands with railroads: Tasmania, New Zealand, Indonesia, Philippines.
Cuba and Jamaica come to mind...
Long Island, Staten Island. Rock Island. New Foundland. Hawaii. Vancouver. Manhatten. Ireland. I am sure there are probably close to a thousand or more!
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Your original question brings up several other questions. During World War II many small Pacific islands had temporary military railroads built by both the Japanese and U.S. military, so do these count? If they do, then practically every small island or coral atoll that was ever occupied by Japanese and Allied forces throughout the Pacific could be listed as having a railroad.
Your question has too many possible answers, and needs to be narrowed down to a more specific type of railroad. Privately owned? Government owned? Military? Industrial? Gauge? Time frame?
Okinawa had a railroad until the end of WWII.
cacole Your question has too many possible answers, and needs to be narrowed down to a more specific type of railroad. Privately owned? Government owned? Military? Industrial? Gauge? Time frame? .
.
Most definitely. Define "island" then define "railroad". Wholly and only on a given island, stand alone railroad, part or branch of a railroad, private or common carrier, It is so broad and so vague that there are millions of answers...even Rock Island could fit!
England..
Ulrich "...England...".
"...England...".
New Zealand (both North and South Islands) Australia, Tasmania?
Does the advent of the "CHUNNEL" change Great Britain as an Island?
Then there is also Ireland....
How about Iceland????
Iceland! No, I don't think there is a railroad on Iceland. But how about Madagascar? Not sure of that one either. Austrailia, by the way, is too big to be an island thus we call it a contenent.
Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts (both 3 ft. gauge); also, Mount Desert Isle (Cadillac Mountain/ Bar Harbor area), Maine.
- Paul North.
And then there are the 'island' railroads on the continents that can be reached only by ferry. Long Island, Washington, was an example. The cars had to be ferryied across the river from Astoria to Megler.
Atlantic Terminal in New York City is served by ferry only. But then Long Island is an island, so maybe it doesn't count.
What about the obvious? Sodor
Thanks to Chris / CopCarSS for my avatar.
henry6 Long Island, Staten Island. Rock Island. New Foundland. Hawaii. Vancouver. Manhatten. Ireland. I am sure there are probably close to a thousand or more!
My questions don't need to be picked apart hair by hair. How about "islands with railroads". I'm guessing some of the answers would be interesting to read.
Murphy Siding henry6: Long Island, Staten Island. Rock Island. New Foundland. Hawaii. Vancouver. Manhatten. Ireland. I am sure there are probably close to a thousand or more! Rock Island?
henry6: Long Island, Staten Island. Rock Island. New Foundland. Hawaii. Vancouver. Manhatten. Ireland. I am sure there are probably close to a thousand or more!
One not asleep at the switch....
Boyd My questions don't need to be picked apart hair by hair. How about "islands with railroads". I'm guessing some of the answers would be interesting to read.
No, maybe not. But with no defining statement you have left yourself wide open to all kinds of answers, some right on, some speculative, some silly. Are you referring to islands with railroads with no physical connections to "mainland" rails or to islands where there are railroads with no connections. Do you mean common carriers? Rapid transit? Any specific guage or guages? Industrial shortlines? Private industrial or agricultural lines within a private area? Or...?
henry6 Boyd: My questions don't need to be picked apart hair by hair. How about "islands with railroads". I'm guessing some of the answers would be interesting to read. No, maybe not. But with no defining statement you have left yourself wide open to all kinds of answers, some right on, some speculative, some silly. Are you referring to islands with railroads with no physical connections to "mainland" rails or to islands where there are railroads with no connections. Do you mean common carriers? Rapid transit? Any specific guage or guages? Industrial shortlines? Private industrial or agricultural lines within a private area? Or...?
Boyd: My questions don't need to be picked apart hair by hair. How about "islands with railroads". I'm guessing some of the answers would be interesting to read.
Sigh.
How about Japan? Four (main) islands, many railroads all consolidated into one system, then fragmented again - except that there are now two systems, separated by a 14.5 inch gauge difference.
Okinawa had a railroad, destroyed in 1945 and never rebuilt.
Oahu, and probably other Hawaiian islands.
Sri Lanka
Chuck
Whoops! Watch out Henry 6! The wife was looking over my shoulder and wants me to remind everyone it's "Newfoundland", not "New Foundland"! Her mother (who I dearly love) is from Newfoundland, the SENIOR British colony as she puts it. I've been there twice, great place with great people, and the seafood, WOW!
Most of the Hawaiian Islands had railroads at one time, Maui still does. Cuba, Corsica, Sardinia, Jamaica, Ireland, Sicily, Isle of Wight, Japan, Long Island, Zealand (Denmark), Funen, Falster, Rügen, Usedom. Give me enough time and I could come up with more. Of course Great Britain is also an island.
Isla Grande de Tierra Del Fuego (southernmost railway in the world)
Taiwan, Sri Lanka, Nouvelle Caledonie, Fiji, Samoa,
Rugen (Germany) , Corsica, Sardinia
In Canada, Vancouver Island had a wide variety of railway operations. It all started with mining and logging in the 1860's, progressed to having both CP (as the E&N) and CN, then RailAmercia (I think, took over the E&N (CP) line?) and now is down to just an active logging railway for Western Forest Products (ex Canfor). The E&N is in need of significant upgrades so now has limited, if any, operations.
Robert Turner did a very nice book on Vancouver Island Railways, updated a few years back: http://www.sononis.com/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=31&category_id=14&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=186&vmcchk=1&Itemid=186
Hopefully this is more on the lines of what your were looking for?
henry6 Murphy Siding: henry6: Long Island, Staten Island. Rock Island. New Foundland. Hawaii. Vancouver. Manhatten. Ireland. I am sure there are probably close to a thousand or more! Rock Island? One not asleep at the switch....
Murphy Siding: henry6: Long Island, Staten Island. Rock Island. New Foundland. Hawaii. Vancouver. Manhatten. Ireland. I am sure there are probably close to a thousand or more! Rock Island?
There seems to be doubt about the island of Rock Island. Here's an excerpt from Statutes at Large, Treaties and Proclamations of the United States of America (1869)
Be it resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the act of Congress "making appropriations for the support of the army for the year ending June thirty, eighteen hundred and sixty-eight, and for other purposes," approved March two, eighteen hundred and sixty-seven, be, and the same is hereby, so amended as to authorize and direct the Secretary of War to order the commencement of work on the bridge over the Mississippi River at Rock Island, to connect the said island with the cities of Davenport and Rock Island : Provided, That the ownership of said bridge shall be and remain in the United States, and the Rock Island and Pacific Railroad Company shall have the right of way over said bridge for all purposes of transit across the island and river, upon condition that the said railroad company shall pay to the United States, first, half of the cost of the superstructure of the bridge over the main channel and half the cost of keeping the same in repair, and shall also build at its own cost the bridge over that part of the river which is on the east side of the island of Rock Island, and also the railroad on and across said island of Rock Island; and upon a full compliance with these conditions said railroad company shall have the use of said bridge for the purposes of free transit, but without any claim to the ownership thereof; and said railroad company shall, within six months after said new bridge is ready for use, remove their old bridge from the river and their railroad track from its present location on the island of Rock Island...
Rock Island Arsenal history article
http://www.ria.army.mil/sites/about/history.cfm?dsp=GarrisonHist
I ponderd the idea of how the name Rock Island came about...then dismissed it and threw the name in to see how many were paying attention anyway. But your attention give me crediblity.
How about the FEC Key West extension? Went from the tip of Florida down to Key West, crossing numerous islends in the process.
I don't know that I'd call the Key West Extension an "island railroad" in the strictest sense as it was an extension of a mainland 'road. Interestingly when the hurricane of 1935 wrecked the Extension it was only the parts of the road on the islands that were wiped out, the bridges held fast. Man, they built 'em good in those days!
Well, we never had "island railroad" defined. So a subway in Manhatten, the Staten Island Railroad, the old PRR from NJ to Long Island and the island hopping Key West Extension could all be so construed.
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