On a personal note
I have been asked by several people “how did you get started in miniature railways” and although I do not wish this to be a personal website I offer the following few lines for those who don’t mind being bored to tears.
I was brought up near the railway station at Chingford. I remember going to the nearby footbridge and standing there waiting for the next train to come underneath, it was just a suburban line, but it was steam and so I suppose the steam oil got into my blood.
On bank holiday Mondays my Dad and Mum would take me to the Ridgeway Park where they had a raised railway of 3½” and 5” gauge and for an old thrup’ny bit I would enjoy a ride behind a real steam miniature engine. Of course I didn’t know anything about that except that I didn't want to go home when the money ran out. When I asked if we could have a steam engine like that my Dad would say that the men built them themselves and they took years to build and so they would not sell them for any amount of money.
When I was about nine years old my parents bought me a train set for Christmas. I imagine I had hankered after one for a long time as I was so pleased when I got it, but it took me a lot of years until I really got to grips with model railways. In my mid-teens I put up a base board along two walls of my room and really started to set out a model railway.
Eventually this was put away and was superseded by girls and then family matters.
But in the end this part of my life was done and I went on holiday to Yorkshire. Whilst there I went to the York National Railway Museum and discovered they had a sales area for miniature railway engines and after much discussion with the sales staff and finding out what was available back home I settled on purchasing a model of Singapore, an 0-6-0 steam engine with a saddle tank. A small 7¼” gauge engine with driving trolley.
I then joined my “local” model engineering society at Cambridge and ran Singapore there on quite a few occasions. Also I joined a wonderful group of people at a now extinct railway at a school in Haughley, Suffolk. Most of this group are now the friends who you see in the pictures, who have built the Little Orchard Railway.
Our Friends Michael and José had a lovely cottage, with quite a large garden, near Stowmarket. In the grounds we built the Willow Wood Railway, which sadly closed down in 2009.
Unfortunately our lovely friend Michael died of prostate cancer and so we all felt that to be fair to José we had to have somewhere else to have a railway, so we set about building a new railway in Janet and my garden at Little Orchard.
As for training in engineering etc. I have none. I tried to learn from my friends and books and despite this we have a railway!
You may like to visit the Seven and a Quarter Gauge Society's website, which is very interesting and I am very proud to say that I was awarded the Charles Simpson award in 2011 for services to the society.
I am sorry to say that we closed the railway when we were in our tenth year, unfortunately I have to admit that all the work involved with maintaining a railway and a large floral garden had got to much for Janet and I.
Our lovely Little Orchard Railway closed on Saturday 2nd July 2016 and the railway was lifted during the next week, that which took 3 years to build was gone in a day.
Thank you to all of you who came and rode on the LOR you helped to give almost £7000 to charity as we sold 6000 tickets and what seemed like millions of cups of tea and biscuits
Especially, thank you to all our lovely helpers past and present
I was brought up near the railway station at Chingford. I remember going to the nearby footbridge and standing there waiting for the next train to come underneath, it was just a suburban line, but it was steam and so I suppose the steam oil got into my blood.
On bank holiday Mondays my Dad and Mum would take me to the Ridgeway Park where they had a raised railway of 3½” and 5” gauge and for an old thrup’ny bit I would enjoy a ride behind a real steam miniature engine. Of course I didn’t know anything about that except that I didn't want to go home when the money ran out. When I asked if we could have a steam engine like that my Dad would say that the men built them themselves and they took years to build and so they would not sell them for any amount of money.
When I was about nine years old my parents bought me a train set for Christmas. I imagine I had hankered after one for a long time as I was so pleased when I got it, but it took me a lot of years until I really got to grips with model railways. In my mid-teens I put up a base board along two walls of my room and really started to set out a model railway.
Eventually this was put away and was superseded by girls and then family matters.
But in the end this part of my life was done and I went on holiday to Yorkshire. Whilst there I went to the York National Railway Museum and discovered they had a sales area for miniature railway engines and after much discussion with the sales staff and finding out what was available back home I settled on purchasing a model of Singapore, an 0-6-0 steam engine with a saddle tank. A small 7¼” gauge engine with driving trolley.
I then joined my “local” model engineering society at Cambridge and ran Singapore there on quite a few occasions. Also I joined a wonderful group of people at a now extinct railway at a school in Haughley, Suffolk. Most of this group are now the friends who you see in the pictures, who have built the Little Orchard Railway.
Our Friends Michael and José had a lovely cottage, with quite a large garden, near Stowmarket. In the grounds we built the Willow Wood Railway, which sadly closed down in 2009.
Unfortunately our lovely friend Michael died of prostate cancer and so we all felt that to be fair to José we had to have somewhere else to have a railway, so we set about building a new railway in Janet and my garden at Little Orchard.
As for training in engineering etc. I have none. I tried to learn from my friends and books and despite this we have a railway!
You may like to visit the Seven and a Quarter Gauge Society's website, which is very interesting and I am very proud to say that I was awarded the Charles Simpson award in 2011 for services to the society.
I am sorry to say that we closed the railway when we were in our tenth year, unfortunately I have to admit that all the work involved with maintaining a railway and a large floral garden had got to much for Janet and I.
Our lovely Little Orchard Railway closed on Saturday 2nd July 2016 and the railway was lifted during the next week, that which took 3 years to build was gone in a day.
Thank you to all of you who came and rode on the LOR you helped to give almost £7000 to charity as we sold 6000 tickets and what seemed like millions of cups of tea and biscuits
Especially, thank you to all our lovely helpers past and present
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My good friend Gavin took this picture of me in typical pose. Holding a cup of tea and nattering There is a station on the Beer Heights railway called 'Much Natter' Some people think the station Master of the Little Orchard Railway should have been named the same |
