I’ve just been sent an interesting YouTube animation of one of the most bonkers railways ever built – Volk’s Brighton to Rottingdean Seashore Electric railway.
This mad piece of Victorian eccentricity saw what amounted to a part-submerged moving pier travelling through the sea from Brighton to Rottingdean.
The whole venture lasted less than seven years, but you can see a short animation of the electric railway tram, ‘Pioneer,’ which was officially classified as a ship and had to be piloted by a trained sea captain!
Related posts:
The mad railways of Brighton
Volk’s Electric railway and the fabulously eccentric Seaside Railway, Brighton
A sunny summer’s afternoon in Brighton
The tragedy of West Pier, Brighton beach, Brighton
Brighton at Christmas
The Brighton i360 tower: ‘successor’ to the West Pier
New Brighton photos!
A sunny day by the seaside at Brighton – beach views and carousels
When I was a kid in the nineteen fifties we spent many a Sunday on the beaches between Brighton and Ovingdean. The concrete or stone foundation blocks of the railway were still scattered along the beach, visible at low tide. Are they still there?