Progress Report 4

A fairly busy Spring and Summer has enabled me to reach the 50+ point in my quest - which means I am now about a quarter of the way through my plan to visit every one of the narrow gauge railways in the UK with a gauge of 12" or more.

In April, a trip to the South East of England saw me visiting:

Great Bush Railway

• The site of the Rye & Camber Tramway - a 3' gauge railway in East Sussex
• The Great Bush Railway - a 2' railway near Tunbridge Wells
• The Romney Hythe and Dymchurch - the world renowned 15" railway
• and, on the way home, The Blenheim Park Railway near Oxford

In May, there was a chance to visit some of railways in North Wales

• The Welsh Highland Railway

  

  The Corris Railway

• The Welsh Highland Heritage Railway 
• and the Corris Railway

There was also time for a return visit to

• The Ffestiniog Railway (for their 150th anniversary celebrations)

and also a quick trip to London enabled me to bag the

• London Funicular Railway near the Northern end of the Millennium Bridge

  

  The Hampton & Kempton Railway

• and the Hampton and Kempton Waterworks Railway on the weekend of its official opening

 and to attend one of the Open Days at the Duke of Westminster's estate near Chester to ride on

• The Eaton Railway which was significant in the history of minimum gauge railways in the UK
  

 In June, I visited an Open Day for the

• Statfold Barn Railway - which has an impressive collection of locomotives from around the world

and in August I paid a return visit to the

• Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway

  

  Ravenglass & Eskdale Railway

and attended a Steam Festival at

• The Threlkeld Railway

In September I made a trip to see

• The Buxton Pavilion Gardens Railway
• and the Vale of Rheidol  Railway

and a return visit to London resulted in a trip to Brighton to travel on the

Vale of Rheidol

• Volks Electric Railway which was one of the world's first electric powered railways

plus a trip to Southend to visit the

• Southend Pier Railway
• and the Southend Cliff Lift

Lakeside Railway - Southport

To round off the year, I took a day trip to Southport where I bagged

• The Southport Lakeside Miniature Railway - another important railway in the history of UK miniature railways
• and the Southport Pier Tramway

Ffestiniog Railway

I must say, that the welcome I've received from the staff on all the railways I have visited has been exemplary, though I have found there is a tendency for there to be an inverse proportional relationship between the enthusiasm of welcome and the size of the railway system. However, this is no hard and fast rule because I must say I was extremely impressed by the quality of the show put on by the Ffestiniog Railway personnel for enthusiasts who turned out for their 150th anniversary celebration event in May. There were numerous well stage-managed photo opportunities and although the numbers visiting were impressively large, the staff maintained a cheerful disposition on both the FR and the Welsh Highland Railway.

So far, only one definite trip is planned so for for 2014, to the Isle of Man (in July) but I also hope to

Image: © Peter Killey - www.manxscenes.com

visit a few more railways in the London area when we take a short break down there in the Summer. We are also hoping to visit South Wales at some point to complete the itinerary for Welsh narrow gauge railways visits and maybe, if time permits, take a short break in Scotland to tick off all the Scottish narrow gauge railways. However, we might make a bigger trip in that direction in 2015 to encompass the railways along the North East coast as we progress Northwards.