Location
On one of the original level crossing gates in Edinburgh Road, adjacent to Victoria Park.
The Gate and Posts
link that used to pass over Edinburgh Road.
The track was completed in 1846 and used until 1977.
The line was dismantled during the 1980s
to allow for landscaping along Unicorn Road
Further Information
The assertion on the plaque that the track was completed in 1846 is rather hard to square with the date of the arrival of the first mainline train into Portsmouth which was on 14th June 1847. In "Railway Heritage, Portsmouth" Michael G. Harvey and Eddie Rooke say that the first link from the main line into the dockyard was opened in 1857 and that it was a single track branch line that left Portsmouth station at ground level, crossing Union Road (later Commercial Road) and Edinburgh Road before entering the Dockyard adjacent to Unicorn Gate.
Until 1876 the main line from London terminated at Portsmouth station, but in that year it was extended to Portsmouth Harbour. To achieve this the mainline was elevated in order to bridge Commercial Road and this offered the opportunity to replace the original link to the dockyard using a branch from the high level station. This route required a steep descent from the station, along the rear of Victoria Park where it linked up with the original track. Little of this section of the route can still be seen though the track from Edinburgh Road to the Unicorn Gate is now marked by a cycle way.
