Huntsville portage railway engine -- postcard

portage Portage or portaging ( CA: ; ) is the practice of carrying water craft or cargo over land, either around an obstacle in a river, or between two bodies of water. A path where items are regularly carried between bodies of water is also called a '' ...

railway is a short and possibly isolated section of

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

used to bypass a section of unnavigable river or between two water bodies which are not directly connected. Cargo from waterborne vessels is unloaded, loaded onto conventional

railroad Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

rolling stock The term rolling stock in the rail transport industry refers to railway vehicles, including both powered and unpowered vehicles: for example, locomotives, Railroad car#Freight cars, freight and Passenger railroad car, passenger cars (or coaches) ...

, carried to the other end of the railway, where it is unloaded and loaded onto a second waterborne vessel. A portage railway is the opposite of a

train ferry A train ferry is a ship (ferry) designed to carry Railroad car, railway vehicles, as well as their cargoes and passengers. Typically, one level of the ship is fitted with Track (rail transport), railway tracks, and the vessel has a door at the f ...

Examples

The following are or were locations of portage railways:

Australia

* Victor Harbor to Goolwa – originally horse drawn – mouth of

Murray River The Murray River (in South Australia: River Murray; Ngarrindjeri language, Ngarrindjeri: ''Millewa'', Yorta Yorta language, Yorta Yorta: ''Dhungala'' or ''Tongala'') is a river in Southeastern Australia. It is List of rivers of Australia, Aust ...

often silted up or was useless due to low water levels. * the first railway in

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

started at the inland river port of

Ipswich Ipswich () is a port town and Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in Suffolk, England. It is the county town, and largest in Suffolk, followed by Lowestoft and Bury St Edmunds, and the third-largest population centre in East Anglia, ...

rather than the capital of

Brisbane Brisbane ( ; ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the States and territories of Australia, state of Queensland and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia, with a ...

to save money. Twenty years later, the line was extended to Brisbane. * several rail lines terminated at river ports, such as Robertson,

Echuca Echuca ( ) is a town on the banks of the Murray River and Campaspe River in Victoria (state), Victoria, Australia. The border town of Moama is adjacent on the northern side of the Murray River in New South Wales. Echuca is the administrative cen ...

, Bourke, Morgan,

Brewarrina Brewarrina (pronounced ''bree-warren-ah''; locally known as "Bre") is a town in north-west New South Wales, Australia on the banks of the Barwon River in Brewarrina Shire. It is east of Bourke and west of Walgett on the Kamilaroi Highway, a ...

Brazil

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

Madeira Madeira ( ; ), officially the Autonomous Region of Madeira (), is an autonomous Regions of Portugal, autonomous region of Portugal. It is an archipelago situated in the North Atlantic Ocean, in the region of Macaronesia, just under north of ...

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 The Yangtze or Yangzi ( or ) is the longest river in Eurasia and the third-longest in the world. It rises at Jari Hill in the Tanggula Mountains of the Tibetan Plateau and flows including Dam Qu River the longest source of the Yangtze, i ...

River in the

Three Gorges Dam The Three Gorges Dam (), officially known as Yangtze River Three Gorges Water Conservancy Project () is a hydroelectric gravity dam that spans the Yangtze River near Sandouping in Yiling District, Yichang, Hubei province, central China, downs ...

area (see Three Gorges Dam#Portage railways). Preliminary work on this project started in 2012. (The article includes a map)

Japan

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

Kamo River The is located in Kyoto Prefecture, Japan. The riverbanks are popular walking spots for residents and tourists. In summer, restaurants open balconies looking out to the river. There are walkways running alongside the river, and some stepping s ...

Congo-Brazzaville

* Congo-Ocean Railway

Congo-Kinshasa

* Matadi–Kinshasa Railway *

Ubundu Ubundu, formerly known as Ponthierville or Ponthierstad, is a town located in the Tshopo Province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and is the administrative center of the territory of the same name. It is on the Lualaba River, or Upper Congo ...

Kisangani Kisangani (), formerly Stanleyville (), is the capital of Tshopo, Tshopo Province, located on the Congo River in the eastern part of the central Congo Basin in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is the country's fifth-most populous urban a ...

, see Great lakes line first section

England

Cromford and High Peak Railway The Cromford and High Peak Railway (C&HPR) was a Standard-gauge railway, standard-gauge line between the Cromford Canal wharf at High Peak Junction and the Peak Forest Canal at Whaley Bridge. The railway, which was completed in 1831, was built t ...

connected Cromford Canal to the

Peak Forest Canal The Peak Forest Canal is a narrow ( gauge) locked artificial waterway in northern England. It is long and forms part of the connected English/Welsh inland waterway network. Route and features General description The canal consists of two leve ...

Greece

* Diolkos near

Corinth Canal The Corinth Canal () is a canal in Greece that connects the Gulf of Corinth in the Ionian Sea with the Saronic Gulf in the Aegean Sea. Completed in 1893, it cuts through the narrow Isthmus of Corinth and "separates" the Peloponnese peninsula fro ...

Laos

* Don Det – Don Khon narrow gauge railway

Panama

* Panama Railway

Russia

* Krasnoyarsk hydroelectric dam ship elevatorFrom River to River - photo gallery
2007

United States

* Allegheny Portage Railroad *

Morris Canal The Morris Canal (1829–1924) was a toll road, common carrier Anthracite, anthracite coal canal across North Jersey, northern New Jersey that connected the two industrial canals in Easton, Pennsylvania across the Delaware River from its weste ...

* 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

{{DEFAULTSORT:Portage Railway Portages Railways by type