Dorset Life

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The Portland branch
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This photograph of Yeolands Bridge being constructed over its deep cutting near Easton illustrates some of the rugged terrain that the builders of the railway would have had to contend with and the amount of limestone they would have had to remove

DORSET was cruelly treated as far as railway closures were concerned. The most famous losses were the Southampton and Dorchester Railway (‘Castleman’s Corkscrew’) and the long-lamented Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway. There were branch line losses too, including Bridport, Abbotsbury and Lyme Regis. Another was the Weymouth & Portland Railway – the Portland branch.
The Isle of Portland is a limestone block, much quarried, and there had …

 

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