Brighton Volks Railway Oldest Electric Railway in the World

The Volks Electric Railway is the world's oldest electric railway still in operation. The Volks Railway is a narrow gauge railway running on a track now around 2 kilometres long situated between the Palace Pier and Brighton Marina on Brighton's seafront.

Brighton Volks Railway

The Volks Railway was originally designed and built by Magnus Volk with the first part of the track completed during August 1883. The original victorian era line was meant to be a seasonal attraction covering only 0.25 miles (a little over 400 metres) between Brighton's Aquarium and the Brighton Chain Pier (The Chain Pier was destroyed by a storm in 1896 before its planned demolition).

The original Volks Railway was built to using a 2 ft/610mm gauge with 50 Volts of Direct Current being supplied to the carriages. In 1884 the railway line was lengthened past the Chain Pier site to terminate at Paston Place in the Kemp Town area of Brighton. The gauge was also widened to 2 ft 9 inches/838 mm and the power supply increased to 160 Volts of Direct Current. Two years later, in 1886, the introduction of a third rail solved a power loss problem caused by the line extension and the track gauge was tweeked a little tighter to 2 ft 8 1⁄2 inches/825 mm which is still used today.

Many victorian and edwardian picture postcards featured the Volks Railway and the occasional Volks Railway postcards and collectables listed on eBay often prove very popular items.

Brighton Corporation took control of the line during 1940 while the Volks Railway was closed due to World War 2. The Volks Railway didn't reopen until 1948 after the war. Today the Volks Railway runs between the terminal stations at Brighton's Aquarium site and Black Rock, close to Brighton Marina, with a half way station depot still at Paston Place. Since the 1980s the railway's power has run at 110 Volts of Direct Current and still uses the third rail.

The Volks Electric Railway Association was formed in 1995 to be responsible for the historic railway line's preservation.