is now Priory Corner, and a counterbalanced incline 586 yards (536m) in length descending to sea level near Portland Castle. From there a further horse-worked section led to Castletown Pier. It had a track gauge of 4ft 6in (1,372mm), and it opened in October 1826. As it was paid for by the quarry operators who used it, its income was rather haphazard, although the public may have been allowed to make use of it. Maintenance was not carried out diligently on the track and the cable system, and stoppages due to breakdown were common. Notwithstanding continual difficulties, the line continued into the twentieth century. Traffic then declined and the First World War effectively stopped the demand for the stone, and the line ceased operation on 17 June 1917. 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. Weymouth and Portland Railway Main lines at Weymouth By the middle decades of the nineteenth century, Weymouth developed considerably as a seaside holiday resort. The broad gauge Great Western Railway had taken over the incomplete Wilts, Somerset and Weymouth Railway, and opened a line from near Chippenham to Weymouth on 20 January 1857. The London and South Western Railway had reached Dorchester with the aid of the Southampton and Dorchester Railway, and an Act of Parliament had given it running powers from Dorchester to Weymouth over the GWR line. As a broad gauge line, the GWR had been compelled to lay mixed gauge track from Dorchester, where the two routes converged, for the convenience of the LSWR. Construction Because of the quarrying activity, a railway into Portland was agreed to be desirable, although there was some opposition, but the Weymouth and Portland Railway got an authorising Act of Parliament on 30 June 1862. 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. The extent of line authorised was 4m 17ch (6.6km) for the main line, 34 chains (274m) for a tramway at Portland, and 1 mile 4 chains (1.93km) for a tramway "to the harbour", which referred to Weymouth Harbour. Authorised share capital was £75,000. Work progressed and when the line was thought to be ready