I love this kind of mad Victorian stuff – check out Volk’s sea railway which ran for nearly three miles in the sea along Brighton’s coastline.
Not surprisingly, it lasted less than seven years before being scrapped – which is rather a shame because it looked a mad ride.
Volk’s Brighton to Rottingdean Seashore Electric railway
Happily, the nearly-as-eccentric Volk’s Electric Railway remains open – now the oldest remaining operating electric railway in the world – running for a mile and a quarter along Brighton’s beach.