The St Michael's Mount Tramway runs from near the harbour up to the castle which dominates the tidal island of
St Michael's Mount
St Michael's Mount ( kw, Karrek Loos yn Koos, meaning " hoar rock in woodland") is a tidal island in Mount's Bay, Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The island is a civil parish and is linked to the town of Marazion by a causeway of granite se ...
, in
Cornwall, England. The tramway is sometimes referred to as the ''Dreckly Express''.
Purposes
The tramway was developed around 1900 by the castle's owner –
Lord St Levan
Baron St Levan, of St Michael's Mount in the County of Cornwall, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created on 4 July 1887 for the former Member of Parliament Sir John St Aubyn, 2nd Baronet, becoming John St Aubyn, 1st Ba ...
– to haul supplies ranging from building materials to groceries up to the castle and dustbins downhill. A notable traffic was Lord St Levan's
regalia for the
Coronation in 1953. It has never operated a passenger service, though one was contemplated in the late 1930s.
The route

The single track tramway originally ran from the quayside, but some years ago it was cut back to start from a short, level, enclosed loading area. At the castle end of this loading area the line plunges into a tunnel and begins its ascent which is entirely in tunnel. Most of the tunnel was built using the
cut and cover method, with just the uppermost few yards being bored through
granite. The tunnel is generally about wide and high, except for the section through granite which is about high.
The line is level only at the loading areas at its ends. In between it runs on
slopes ranging from 1 in 14 (7.14
%) near the foot to 1 in 1.9 (52.6%) for the last , giving a total rise of , emerging near the castle's kitchens.
Haulage
The line's varying slopes and the curve near its foot makes the
wire haulage rope more prone to thrashing than most rope-worked lines, where gravity usually holds the rope in rollers. It receives its greatest wear nearest the tram, so by buying a rope deliberately longer than necessary it is possible to cut the worn end off three times before needing to replace the whole rope. Until the mid-1920s a
gas engine
A gas engine is an internal combustion engine that runs on a gaseous fuel, such as coal gas, producer gas, biogas, landfill gas or natural gas. In the United Kingdom, the term is unambiguous. In the United States, due to the widespread use of ...
provided the motive power. A
Ruston Ruston may refer to:
Place names
;United States
* Ruston, Louisiana
* Ruston, Washington
;United Kingdom
* East Ruston, Norfolk, England
* Ruston, North Yorkshire, England
* Ruston Parva, East Riding of Yorkshire, England
Companies
* Ruston (engi ...
petrol engine was then installed to provide electricity to the castle, enabling
rechargeable batteries to be installed to power the tramway. In 1951 the island was connected to the
National Grid, since when the rope has been powered by a
AC motor. In 2018 the cable was reported to be wound by a Crompton Parkinson electric motor.
The trams
Several trams have been used over the years. That used in 1964 was built locally. It had a
metal frame with a
wooden floor lined with
galvanised sheeting
A bed sheet is a rectangular piece of cloth used either singly or in a pair as bedding, which is larger in length and width than a mattress, and which is placed immediately above a mattress or bed, but below blankets and other bedding (such as ...
and wooden side
planking
Planking may refer to:
* Planking (fad), an activity consisting of lying face down—sometimes in an unusual or incongruous location
* Plank (exercise), an isometric core strength exercise
* Planking, a form of indirect grilling
* Shad Planking, ...
, some of which could be lifted out by hand to make loading and unloading easier. The
wheel
A wheel is a circular component that is intended to rotate on an axle Bearing (mechanical), bearing. The wheel is one of the key components of the wheel and axle which is one of the Simple machine, six simple machines. Wheels, in conjunction wi ...
s were loose on their
axle
An axle or axletree is a central shaft for a rotating wheel or gear. On wheeled vehicles, the axle may be fixed to the wheels, rotating with them, or fixed to the vehicle, with the wheels rotating around the axle. In the former case, bearing ...
s, which themselves were able to
rotate
Rotation, or spin, is the circular movement of an object around a '' central axis''. A two-dimensional rotating object has only one possible central axis and can rotate in either a clockwise or counterclockwise direction. A three-dimensional ...
. At that time four or five runs were made in a typical day, with considerable increases if building work was taking place when, for example, granite blocks and
scaffolding poles have been carried. The current tram has the general appearance of a
trunk
Trunk may refer to:
Biology
* Trunk (anatomy), synonym for torso
* Trunk (botany), a tree's central superstructure
* Trunk of corpus callosum, in neuroanatomy
* Elephant trunk, the proboscis of an elephant
Computing
* Trunk (software), in rev ...
on wheels.
Gauge
Most details of this short line are uncontentious, but the line's gauge, which has not changed since it was built, is variously reported on line and in the literature as:
* on an information board near the line in 2018.
* in ''
The Railway Magazine''
* in
St Michael's Mount
St Michael's Mount ( kw, Karrek Loos yn Koos, meaning " hoar rock in woodland") is a tidal island in Mount's Bay, Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The island is a civil parish and is linked to the town of Marazion by a causeway of granite se ...
Modern times
In 2018, the tramway was reported as being "still in regular use, perhaps not every day". However, the
National Trust, which acts as the island's custodian, is said to "prohibit visitors from seeing it", though it is mentioned in the Trust's publicity. The only part readily accessible to the public is the disused last few feet, ending at the harbourside wall, in which a pair of wooden
buffer stops is embedded.
References
Sources
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External links
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{{Coord, 50.1183, -5.4782, type:landmark_region:GB-CON, display=title
Rail transport in Cornwall