Colonel Stephens was engineer and subsequently manager and effectively
owner of this agricultural light railway.It was was opened in 1897 from
Chichester to Selsey Town and extended a further mile to Selsey Beach
in 1908 but this section fell out of use in 1914. Generally known as the
Selsey Tram the railway was laterly the most ramshackle of all Stephens
lines, and suffered greatly from road competition after the Great War.
It fell into bankruptcy in the early 1930s and closed in 1935. The Southern
railway had actively considered purchase to turn it into an electrified
holiday line but was deterred by high reconstruction costs.
Further reading:
The Selsey Tramway, Volumes 1 and 2. Laurie Cooksey. Wild Swan Publications. 2006
See Also TOPICS article
