DISCOVER Dorset's narrow gauge railway heritage in a new book which records long-forgotten sights of little locomotives hauling heavy trains in pastoral and industrial landscapes.

As well as the London South Western Railway and Great Western Railway standard gauge lines which criss-crossed the county, narrow gauge railway tracks were laid in some unusual locations.

Not all were created by the Victorians, as Vic Mitchell and Keith Smith's Dorset & Somerset Narrow Gauge (Middleton Press, £14.95) testifies, with the 1983-built Weymouth and Portland sewage outfall featured along with Tim Sheldon's Tiny Tramway Mining Co at Corfe Mullen.

At Doddings Farm near Bere Regis, Bedford & Jesty Ltd used an 18in gauge locomotive powered by an Austin 7 engine to haul watercress from its beds to the washing shed beside the Bere Water.

The beds were created in 1880, but the book does not say when the railway was built.

The line featured an overbridge and a viaduct. The company became part of the Vitacress empire in 1980 and a short length of track was still in use earlier this year, though trucks were hand-propelled.

Much older was George Jennings' South Western Pottery at Parkstone, which had a 2ft gauge line running between its clay pit and pottery. It was opened in 1856 and eventually closed in the early 1960s after plastic drainage pipes came into fashion.

As well as a map of the mineral line, a photograph records a Hibberd Planet diesel hauling heavy wagons loaded with clay in 1957.

Diesel traction, in the form of a diminutive Ruston and Hornsby, was also used at Lytchett Brick Co, Upton.

Probably better-known are the trains which rumbled and rattled around the Isle of Purbeck carrying loads of china clay.

At the height of its operation Pike Brothers of Furzebrook's 2ft 8in tramway operated seven steam locomotives of Victorian vintage.

In the mid-1950s road transport began taking over. Most of the track had been lifted by 1959 but some sidings were used on and off until 1992.

Norden Clay Mines also used trains on Purbeck. Known as Fayle's Tramway, the 3ft 9in gauge line linked Norden Clay Works near Corfe to Middlebere Quay.

Two steam locos named Tiny and Thames were in operation. Not only were they used for moving wagons loaded with clay, but also for ferrying clay miners' children to and from school at Corfe during the 1930s in what resembled a mobile shed.

China clay was dug manually and rope-hauled out of the pit before being coupled up behind locomotives and taken away to sidings for weathering prior to processing.

The long line to Goathorn Pier was closed in about 1939 and in 1948 the remaining sections were relaid to 2ft gauge. Trains were then hauled by diesels, petrol-engined rail motors or an 0-6-2 tank named Russell.

The line crossed both the 4ft 8in gauge Swanage branch on an overbridge and the A351 road on a level crossing. The bridge is still in place with new track laid as portrayed in an Andrew Wright photograph.

Other Dorset railways featured include the Poole gasworks' line, Swanage Pier Tramway and the vast complex at the Royal Navy cordite factory at Holton Heath which is mostly depicted in map form.

Collieries in the North Somerset coal fields are also featured, as is the Oakhill Brewery line and those used by peat diggers, quarry companies and light railway enthusiasts.

The book features some excellent historical photos and maps, though like others in the series, it could benefit from being in a larger format which would allow more text and historical detail.