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Click
the thumbnail to view the full sized images, which measure 600 pixels on
the longest side, and are around 50k in size. Please read my copyright
notes if you want to use them in any way
 Regular
visitors to the "Rail Diaries" will have met the (replica) products of Sir
Arthur Heywood before - we've seen the delightful "Effie" at Rhyl, and
more recently "Ursula" (and
 Shelagh...)
at Perrygrove. Ursula carries the initials "ER" on her buffer beams -
denoting her origin on the Eaton Railway, the 15" gauge line built by
Heywood for the Duke of Westminster in the grounds of Eaton Hall, near
Chester, linking the hall with the Great Western main line at Balderton.
 The
original line served its master for more than 50 years from its
construction in 1895, although Katie left during the first world war,
bought by the nascent Ravenglass and Eskdale railway. She had been
replaced by two larger locomotives - the
 aforementioned
Ursula and Shelagh. Sadly, she wasn't a lot of use to the "Ratty", and was sold
on in 1922 to the Llewellyn Miniature Railway in Southport. W J K
Davies, in "The Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway" (David and Charles,
1968) suggests that she "was badly worn when she came to Eskdale - the
R&E must have been fairly deperate to buy her".
 The
replica "Katie" was built in Hampshire in 1994, to operate on a new 15"
line at Eaton Hall - the Eaton Park Railway. This line is arranged in
the form of a large (and somewhat misshapen) balloon loop, with a
triangular junction at the neck of the balloon. The short "string" runs
through a gap in the garden wall to the engine shed, with a small
station facility immediately outside the shed.
 The latter short section
is, I understand, more-or-less
on the route of the original line.
The line is not normally open to the
general public - except on the three occasions each year when the
gardens are open. The last such date this year was the Sunday of the
August bank holiday weekend - so with reasonable weather forecast, off
we went!
 I
had imagined that the triangular junction would be used to turn Katie
between the half-hourly trips, so that she would always run smokebox
first. Not so! Perhaps then she would always run clockwise, alternately
cab first / smokebox first, in order to equalise flange wear. Again, not
so! Smokebox first trips ran clockwise, bunker first trips
anticlockwise. I suppose it saved someone having to go out and change
the points...
 We
arrived shortly after the gardens opened at 1.30pm, to see Katie heading
away from the hall with the open bogie
 coach
and the little four-wheeled brake - obviously limited capacity for
passengers - and when we enquired at the booking desk, we found that
all trips were fully booked until around 5pm. However, after exploring
the gardens, we returned to the line to find that an extra coach had
been added - the closed saloon which was referred to as "the Duchess's
Coach". So we had our ride - in the latter ,
a splendid vehicle for such a slim gauge, although being inside meant I
was unable to record our trip on the video camera. Perhaps another day!
Garden open days are listed on the "Eaton Gardens" page of the
Eaton Estate website - if you're
interested in an unusual railway with an historic background in the
field of "minimum gauge railways", check it out!
Video Clips:
all 360 x 288, Windows Media
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The short train... ...and a short
clip. Katie heads for home with the open coach and brake
645k; 28s |
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The long train... ...and a longer
sequence. Katie heads the open coach, "the Duchess's coach" and
brake, clockwise and anticlockwise. Includes "the short train".
(Sorry about the wind noise - it was a bit
breezy at times)
2,366k; 1m 49s |
Links:
See also "Rail Diaries" pages:
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me! - I might put some more up.
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