The first railways in the area were of wooden rails used during the construction of docks facilities. Some were in use in the Naval Dockyard in 1724, [2] and in 1756 John Smeaton laid some more to help move materials in his workyard on the mainland which was preparing stonework for the Eddystone Lighthouse. [4: p5-8] [1]

Smeaton’s Workyard near the location of Millbay Docks was used for a fastidious trial construction of the lighthouse to ensure that the massive stone blocks used in its construction would fit with each other before undertaking the work on site, 14 miles out to sea. To move these blocks around the Workyard, Smeaton made use of a ‘Rail Road’ which comprised of a four-wheel carriage running on a timber road. In Smeaton’s own words, stones were “delivered upon the four-wheel carriage that runs along the timber road, commonly called at the Collieries, where they are used, a Rail Road: and being landed upon the carriage, any stone can be delivered upon any of the Bankers in the line of the work-sheds on either side: or the carriage being turned a quarter round upon the Turnpike, or Turnrail, it can be carried along the road that goes up the middle of the yard, and be delivered upon any part of its area destined for their deposition; all the stones marked for the same course being deposited together; from which place they can be again taken up upon the carriage, run along the road, and be delivered upon any Banker in the line of sheds, or upon the Platform, and afterwards returned back to the same place of deposition, ready to be carried to sea in their proper order … A Banker in a mason’s yard is a square stone of a suitable size, made use of as a work-bench.” [4: p6-7]

In 1812, John Rennie laid a 3 ft 6 in (1.07 m) gauge metal tramway to help with the construction of the Plymouth Breakwater; rails were laid in the quarry at Oreston and on the breakwater, and loaded wagons were conveyed between the two on ships. [5][1]

Rennie’s use of a ‘Rail Road’ is recorded in three different contemporary accounts: “The first of these is ‘Two Excursions to the Ports of England, Scotland and Ireland in 1816, 1817 and 1818, with a description of the Breakwater at Plymouth and the Caledonian Canal‘ translated from the (French) original of Charles Dupin. The second book …  [was] published by J. Johns of “Dock” (soon to become “Devonport”) in a booklet dated November 1820 entitled ‘Interesting Particulars Relative to the Great National Undertaking, the Breakwater now Constructing in Plymouth Sound.’ From these two books, a good picture of Rennie’s little railway can be formed, whilst the third book, Rennie’s own mammoth publication provides yet another set of carefully-scaled drawings, similar to Smeaton’s previous records.” [4: p9-10]

Rennie’s 3ft 6in gauge railway allowed horses to bring large stone blocks on flatbed wagons (or smaller stones in wagons fitted with sides), from his quarry at Oreston to a quay where the wagons were turned on a turntable and loaded onto vessels with iron rails in their holds and taken to the sites of the breakwater. On arrival a form of tippler appears to have been used to discharge the wagonloads onto the sides of the breakwater. [4: p10-11]

“The building of the breakwater extended over some thirty years, and in its final stages a railway was actually constructed on the surface of the “wall” enabling the ships to be unloaded in the reverse manner to that of the loading at Oreston, even down to the provision of turn-tables. … This … has given rise to the claim that this was the first rudimentary ‘train ferry’.” [4: p12]

Kendall noted in 1968, that the quarry at Oreston still continued to supply stone for the maintenance of the breakwater. [4: p12]

On their journey around England in 1826 and 1827,  Von Oeynhausen and Von Dechen visited the Plymouth Breakwater and the later Plymouth & Dartmoor Railway referred to below. [7: p51-55] Of the Breakwater Railway, they commented: “For the transport of the larger masses of stone, 10 ships of 80 tons burden have been built in the Royal Dockyard. These ships can carry 16 blocks, each of 5 tons weight, in two rows, each block resting on a wagon which runs on a railway. The two railways on the ships are extended to the breakwater by drawbridges; and then the wagons are drawn out of the ships by cranes and unloaded. In this manner, a ship of 80 tons can be unloaded in 40 or 50 minutes. The ships are brought to the place where the stones are required to be laid by the help of buoys.” [7: p55]

A more conventional tramway was opened on 26th September 1823. The 4 ft 6 in (1.37 m) Plymouth & Dartmoor Railway ran from Princetown to Sutton Harbour and the Cattewater. Branches were opened to Cann Quarry in 1829 and to Plympton in 1834, followed by the Lee Moor Tramway in 1854. Haulage on these lines in Plymouth was always by horses (although the Lee Moor Tramway did have two 0-4-0ST locomotives which spent most of their life at the Lee Moor end of the tramway). The Lee Moor line remained in use until 1960. [1][3][6: p9]

The Plymouth & Dartmoor Railway is covered in much greater detail in the article accessed via this link:

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References

1. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Railways_in_Plymouth#:~:text=A%20more%20conventional%20tramway%20was,Lee%20Moor%20Tramway%20in%201854, accessed on 20th September 2023.
2. Paul Burkhalter; Devonport Dockyard Railway; Twelveheads Press, Truro, 1996.
3. Eric R. Shepherd; The Plymouth and Dartmoor Railway and the Lee Moor Tramway; ARK Publications (Railways), Newton Abbot, Devon, 1997.
4. H.G. Kendall; The Plymouth & Dartmoor Railway; The Oakwood Press, Lingfield, Surrey, 1968.
5. David St John Thomas; West Country Railway History; David & Charles, Newton Abbot, 1973.
6. Russell Leitch; Plymouth’s Railways in the 1930s including “The Gear’s Poor Relation”; Railway Correspondence & Travel Society, Peterborough, 2002.
7. C. Von Oeynhausen and H. Von Dechen; Railways in England 1826 and 1827; translated from the German by E.A. Forward and edited by Charles E. Lee and K.R. Gilbert; Newcomen Society, Cambridge, 1971.