Confessions of a Narrow Minded Enthusiast

For our February Meeting we welcomed back Colin Brading with a presentation entitled “Confessions of a Narrow Minded Enthusiast”. The first part covered the development of 15” Gauge Railways. The origins of this gauge come from Sir Arthur Heywood who opened a 15” railway on his family estate Duffield Bank, which was used to transport visitors and goods and had six locos. His intention was to demonstrate the value to the Army of this gauge. The next development was the Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway, a former 3ft gauge line which had gone Bankrupt and reopened in 1915 re-gauged to 15”. The owner was Bassett-Lowke previously involved in making model railways and in 1916 purchased some of the rolling stock following the death of Sir Arthur Heywood. Henry Geenly designed new locomotives for the railway and then became involved in the locomotive design for Captain Howey on the Romney Hythe and Dymchurch Railway. It was interesting to note that locomotives were originally to scale and were quarter size of a standard gauge loco but was it was subsequently found that one third size was more suitable providing a more powerful locomotive.

The second part of the presentation covered 12 ¼”, 10 ¼” and 7 ¼” gauges. These were largely built for parks, stately homes and seaside resorts over many years. Although some have been closed, the majority of the equipment has been relocated to other locations. Many railways were featured in the presentation. Among these were the 7 ¼” Great Cockrow Railway at Chertsey. This originated in a private estate in 1946 and was purchased in 1968 by Ian Allan and moved to its present site. It is noticeable for its signalling with full track circuiting operating with redundant main line signalling equipment. The Moors Valley is also a 7 ¼” Railway opened in 1986 at a country park. It is a one mile long and now double tracked, and can either be run from a signal box or automatically. One of the saddest losses was the miniature railway at Dobwalls Park in Cornwall. The layout was based around two American railways with locomotives based on Union Pacific and Rio Grande designs including a  7 ¼” Big Boy. On closure of the park in 2006 the railway was sold to a Garden Centre in Dorset but never opened and then sold for use in Australia.

Thanks to Colin for very interesting presentation showing the origins and continued use of miniature railways.