A portage railway is a short and possibly isolated section of railway used to bypass a section of unnavigable river or between two water bodies which are not directly connected.^[1] Cargo from waterborne vessels is unloaded, loaded onto conventional railroad rolling stock, 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.

Examples

The following are or were locations of portage railways:

Australia

• Victor Harbor to Goolwa – originally horse drawn – mouth of Murray River often silted up or was useless due to low water levels.
• the first railway in Queensland started at the inland river port of Ipswich rather than the capital of Brisbane to save money. Twenty years later, the line was extended to Brisbane.
• several rail lines terminated at river ports, such as Robertson, Echuca, Bourke, Morgan, Brewarrina

Brazil

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

Canada

Central African Republic

• Zinga to Mongo

China

• The Three Gorges Portage Railways, on each side of the Yangtze River in the Three Gorges Dam area (see Three Gorges Dam#Portage railways). Preliminary work on this project started in 2012.^[2]

Congo-Brazzaville

• Congo-Ocean Railway

Congo-Kinshasa

• Matadi–Kinshasa Railway
• Ubundu to Kisangani, see Great lakes line first section

England

• Cromford and High Peak Railway connected Cromford Canal to the Peak Forest Canal

Greece

• Diolkos near Corinth Canal

Laos

• Don Det – Don Khon narrow gauge railway

Panama

• Panama Railway

Russia

• Krasnoyarsk hydroelectric dam ship elevator^[3][4]

United States

• Allegheny Portage Railroad
• Morris Canal
• 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.