From the late 1840s until 1872, Portland Breakwater was built, a prodigious construction task that created a very large safe harbour.

As far as Portland, the line was well used, but the onward section to Easton was disappointing commercially, and the E&CHR company, which owned the infrastructure, fell into receivership.

Much of the actual quarrying took place at high points on the Island, and getting the heavy material down to a quayside was a considerable task.

[3] It consisted of a horse-drawn tramway from what is now Priory Corner and a counterbalanced incline 586 yards (536m) in length descending to sea level near Portland Castle.

Traffic then declined, and the First World War effectively stopped the demand for the stone, and the line ceased operation on 17 June 1917.

[5] It reopened on 12 January 1920, and business was rather buoyant once again, but the outbreak of World War II indicated the end of operation, and the line closed again, this time permanently, on 11 October 1939.

It was to be made on the mixed gauge, from a junction with the GWR line a short distance north of Weymouth station, to a terminus at Portland.

[9][10] [11][12][2] Work progressed and when the line was thought to be ready for opening, Col Yolland made the Board of Trade inspection on 19 May 1864.

He found that although some strengthening of the viaducts had been attempted, little else had been rectified, and no solution had been proposed to the dangerous reversal of trains from Weymouth Junction to the station.

[14][15] As time went on with no progress, it became plain that the local company expected the Great Western Railway to assent to the use of the Weymouth station without payment.

[21] The Great Western Railway route at Weymouth was converted to narrow (standard) gauge between 18 and 22 June 1874, of course affecting the Portland line also.

Although it was used principally by horse-drawn goods traffic the Board of Trade insisted on it being fully interlocked to passenger standards.

It was to be on the south-east side of the island; it was intended as another line to bring quarried stone down to the water's edge where a new jetty would be constructed.

It was to run from Sheepcroft, immediately north of Easton, to the top of the cliff above Church Ope Cove, where there was to be an inclined plane down to the foreshore.

c. cclviii) to authorised a fundamental change of plan by the company: it would build a new line to link up with the Portland Railway, and abandon the unfinished section to Church Ope Cove.

Most importantly running powers were obtained over the Admiralty line so as to reach and connect with Weymouth and Portland Railway.

Colonel Yorke for the Board of Trade inspected the line on 3 July 1900, and he remarked that the railway was not laid out according to the plans.

He was not impressed with the bridge over the Merchants' Incline; this was an original structure of the Admiralty railway which had carried only freight traffic.

In addition since the Merchants' Railway had been opened many of the quarries had established routes by which their product was taken by traction engines to a loading point on that line.

[33] The Admiralty ended its agreement for maintenance of their own line as they had no further use for it and the Easton company had to apply to Parliament for powers to carry out that work itself.

[33][34][29] Lieut Colonel Yorke visited the Admiralty section of the line on 19 March 1902, and he was dismayed to find that the train staff could be withdrawn from the ground frame lock at Castletown with the points set for the sidings, completely contrary to proper interlocking arrangements; there was no locking whatsoever on the section of line into Portland station.

It was inspected by Colonel Yorke on 14 August 1902; he was not happy with the sharp curve but as this appeared to be only a temporary arrangement pending the building of the new station he accepted it.

[33][34][35][29] In 1908 the Church Hope Railway line was placed in the hands of a receiver as a result of an action brought by debenture holders.

The facilities at Portland station–still far from ideal–were improved early in 1896 when a wall and cover were constructed on the west side of the station to protect the platform and the waiting passengers from the elements.

[38] The new integrated Portland station, serving both lines, was opened on 7 May 1905, and on March a trial run had been made to Easton with a steam railmotor.

Only the rail motors were able to serve the new halts at Westham and Wyke Regis, and they did not run on Sundays so those places did not have a train service on that day.

[41] In June 1927, there was a joint officers' conference of the Southern and Great Western companies examining the running costs of the line.

[44] After the closure Melcombe Regis station was occasionally used for trains on the main line arriving at Weymouth, when platform availability was inadequate.

Today, parts of the line can still be walked, but the course of the backwater railway viaduct has long since been replaced by Weymouth’s Swannery road bridge, which was built in virtually the same place.

This section made it one of the most scenic coastal branch lines in the south of England; it is now part of Dorset's World Heritage Jurassic Coast.