News

Over the weekend of 9/10 November we played host to a visiting steam locomotive ‘Ernest Henry Upton’.

Built by Guest Engineering in 1937, Ernest is a classic park railway steam locomotive, and normally lives at the Eastleigh Lakeside Railway near Southampton.

Despite poor weather on the Saturday Ernest’s visit proved popular and has set in train plans for next year!

Many thanks to Rob from Eastleigh for letting us borrow Ernest, and Dan from Hastings Miniature Railway for helping with transport.

All aboard the Cassiobury Park Ghost Train!

On Sunday 27th October things will be getting a little spooky down at the railway.

From 5pm to 7pm we will be running the Ghost Train around the Haunted Woods, all at the normal price of £2 per person.

Trains will also be running 11am – 4pm during the day with some of the spooks, surprises and decorations, for those who would prefer a daylight trip.

To finish our daily summer season, we will be holding a gala weekend on the 28th & 29th September.

• All our locomotives in use over the weekend
• Last opportunity to see the twin diesels together (Conway Castle & Rhuddlan Castle)
• Visiting steam locomotive subject to availability

As the next step in celebrating our 60th Anniversary Year, for the summer we have reunited Conway Castle with her twin Rhuddlan Castle.

The two Castles were built by Fenlow Engineering in 1972 for a railway at Prestatyn in North Wales. When this line closed they were bought by the Nicholson family and ran during the 80s on a railway at the Suffolk Widlife Park, but it is now 30 years since the two engines have been together.

Rhuddlan Castle is in largely original condition, whereas Conway Castle was rebuilt to more modern standards in the mid 1990s, so there is an interesting contrast between the two!

We are very grateful to Stuart Madgin at the Vanstones Woodland Railway who has kindly let us have Rhuddlan on loan for the summer. Rhuddlan is not in daily use, but will fill in as needed when one of our diesels is undergoing maintenance, and there will also be a few special days where the two Fenlow diesels are running together.

The weekend of 27^th & 27^th April saw a celebratory event held to mark the 60^th anniversary of the Watford Miniature Railway.

Located in Watford’s award-winning Cassiobury Park, the railway has become part and parcel of the town’s culture since it opened in 1959 and is now one of the oldest operating park railways in the UK.

Despite some variable weather trains ran all weekend, with the railway’s normal locomotives being joined by ‘Meteor V’, a petrol locomotive which ran on the railway until the early 1990s.  Also on display was a new resident steam locomotive ‘Pilgrim’, which will be entering service soon after some minor repair work is completed.

The Park’s Hub building hosted an exhibition of the railway’s development and history over the past 60 years, including over 200 photos never seen in public before.  There were also model railways on display, free children’s entertainment and live music.  On the Saturday there was a birthday cake cutting ceremony attended by Mayor of Watford Peter Taylor, railway staff past and present, and a number of park visitors – and, of course, there was a free piece of cake for all visitors!

A commemorative book has also been produced detailing the history of the railway, which can be purchased here or in person at the railway.

Plans are now being developed by the railway’s current operators to help improve the facilities and secure the railway’s future for many more generations to come.

Railway owner Charles O’Mahoney commented “For generations the railway has been part of a visit to the park for local residents.  We regularly have visitors who rode as a child returning now with their children or grandchildren, and in fact three generations of my family have ridden on the train here as children.  I don’t think there is a park railway anywhere else that has that strength of social history.  Not many miniature railways survive beyond 20 years so it is remarkable we have reached our 60^th birthday.

We have very basic facilities – we don’t even have mains power or water – and we really want to improve these and the experience for our visitors.  By improving what we have I hope the railway can ultimately reach its centenary in 2059!”

Come along on the 27th & 28th April to celebrate 60 years of the WMR!

The Cassiobury Park Hub building will host a free exhibition detailing the history of the railway, how it came to be and how it has developed over the past 60 years. This will include many photographs never seen in public. Also in the Hub will be a number of model railway displays.

From 1pm to 4pm on both days there will be an event area next to the railway with live music, local stalls and children’s activities.

On Saturday the Mayor of Watford will be attending to help launch the celebrations and, of course, cut the obligatory birthday cake!

Trains will be running from 11am on both days with both resident and visiting engines, as shown below:

Marri	Nikki Louise	Conway Castle
Meteor V	Pilgrim	All engines subject to mechanical availability

Another steam locomotive has joined the fleet for this summer.

Pilgrim is an 0-6-0 tank engine originally built by David King in 1982. Commissioned brand new for the Wells and Walsingham Railway in Norfolk, she later spent many years on a touring portable railway, before ending up at the Knebworth Park Railway on the other side of Hertfordshire. After a comprehensive overhaul in 2013/14, she was placed back on loan to the Wells Railway. However she has now moved to join us to help celebrate our 60th anniversary.

Pilgrim requires a boiler test (in layman’s terms, a steam engine MOT) and air brakes fitting before she can haul our trains, but we hope to have this work finished in time for our 60th Anniversary Weekend on the 27th & 28th April.

Chiltern Shuttle’s owner Dave Horton reports on restoration progress this month:

The boiler has now been removed from the frames and thickness testing carried out on all of the platework. This reveals things to be in remarkably good condition considering the loco has been stood unused in the damp and cold for ten years still wearing its cladding. The exception is the smokebox which, as expected, is totally shot (though the chimney and door are salvageable), and the two bosses (washout plugs) on the bottom of the barrel which are rusted through will have to be replaced.

The Historic Steam locomotive ‘Chiltern Shuttle’ will be returning home to Watford following completion of a thorough overhaul to working order.

Built by R.H. Morse in the 1940s, Chiltern Shuttle has been based at Watford since the early 1980s. When the railway was sold to new owners in 2017 she was not included in the sale, but she has now been bought by two of our occasional drivers, David and Yvette Horton.

In November Chiltern Shuttle arrived with Denver Light Railway, the specialist engineering firm who helped put Marri back into working order earlier this year.  She has now been stripped down into parts, ready to assess exactly what work is required to put her back into working order.  After many years of use there will be quite a few parts which need attention, so we can’t say yet when Chiltern Shuttle will be back home, but we hope it will be in the next 2-3 years.

Although privately owned she will live at Watford and be used on some trains all year round, as well as occasionally visiting other railways as our roving mascot!