The West Sussex Railway opened in 1897 as the Hundred of Manhood and Selsey Tramway, so named to save having to build the railway to regulations that normally covered railways, later changing its name to the WSR. It closed on 19th January 1935 in the face of intensive road bus competition. Although for many years very busy its finances never recovered from the costs of repairing damage due to floods in 1911, which totally submerged the railway just north of Pagham Harbour

Pagham Harbour

Pagham Harbour is a natural harbour on England's south coast. It is south of the city of Chichester and near the towns of Pagham and Selsey.Geographically it is the smallest and most easterly of the harbours of the Solent....

. It ran from Chichester

Chichester

Chichester is a cathedral city in West Sussex, within the historic County of Sussex, South-East England. It has a long history as a settlement; its Roman past and its subsequent importance in Anglo-Saxon times are only its beginnings...

 to Selsey

Selsey

Selsey is a seaside town and civil parish, about seven miles south of Chichester, in the Chichester District of West Sussex, England. Selsey lies at the southernmost point of the Manhood Peninsula, almost cut off from mainland Sussex by the sea...

 in West Sussex

West Sussex

West Sussex is a county in the south of England, bordering onto East Sussex , Hampshire and Surrey. The county of Sussex has been divided into East and West since the 12th century, and obtained separate county councils in 1888, but it remained a single ceremonial county until 1974 and the coming...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 and was one of the Colonel H. F. Stephens

H. F. Stephens

Colonel Holman Fred Stephens was a British light railway civil engineer and manager. During his lifetime he was engaged in engineering and building, and later managing, 16 light railways in England and Wales.- Biography :...

 Railways.

Like three other Col. Stephens railways it utilised road bus chassis which had flanged railway wheels fitted for use on the railway. The wheels being pressed steel made a curious ringing sound which could apparently be heard from some distance and served as a call to latecomers who might have otherwise have missed the train.

During the early years there was a half mile extension from Selsey Town station to the beach, but this closed before the First World War and nothing of it remains.

For the modern railway explorer this is one of the least rewarding lines to trace as the formation was almost completely at ground level so almost nothing remains except a half mile section alongside Pagham harbour where the track was raised following a breach and subsequent flooding in 1911, a section of about 1 quarter of a mile, now a farm track between Pagham Harbour and the Selsey Golf Club and a quarter of a mile section (now a public footpath) west of Hunston Village the northern end of which ends at the abutments of the now defunct Tramway bridge across the Chichester Canal.A short section of trackbed is now a footpath from north of the Chichester Canal to Stockbridge Road, Chichester. The platforms of Hunston and Chalder station can also still be located in fields although badly overgrown.

This line was surveyed by the builders of the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway

Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway

The Romney, Hythe & Dymchurch Railway is a gauge light railway in Kent, England. The line runs from the Cinque Port of Hythe via Dymchurch, St...

 in the early 1920s when they were looking for somewhere to build their miniature line which now runs in Kent. Apparently, despite being otherwise ideal for their purposes, the line was discounted because of the number of road crossings which would have been prohibitively expensive to either gate or bridge. The Southern Railway

Southern Railway (Great Britain)

The Southern Railway was a British railway company established in the 1923 Grouping. It linked London with the Channel ports, South West England, South coast resorts and Kent...

 also surveyed it for takeover and improvement in the early 1930s but decided against both.

It was known locally as the Selsey Tram. It was also sometimes called "The Siddlesham

Sidlesham

Sidlesham is a small village and civil parish, on the Manhood Peninsula, five kilometres south of Chichester in the Chichester District of West Sussex, England. It has a small primary school. The area has had a Prebendary since medieval times...

Snail" after one of the villages having a station of that name. Sidlesham station's nameboard originally perpetuated the old spelling "Siddlesham". A song was written criticising the line which verse went

"The Siddlesham snail,

the Siddlesham snail,

the boilers burst,

she's off the rail,

the Siddlesham snail!"

External links

• Detailed appraisal of the railway commissioned in 1934

• Article on the line at the Colonel Stephen Museum website