(There will be some changes at a later date. I’ve written the whole thing down but I can’t remember where I put it. So until I find it, here’s the basic story)

Castle Rock colliery sits in the middle of a fictional town called Castle Rock. The town has this name because when the colliery was first built it was called “Castle Rock Colliery”, since there was a huge castle in the middle of the town on a rocky hill which gives the name Castle Rock. When more and more people moved to the town, it’s original name was replaced with “Castle Rock”.

The castle itself is called Dracona Castle after a local folk tale from before the town was even formed.

The colliery closed down earlier than most others, so the site remained derelict for decades. The whole railway through Castle Rock was closed down by 1968 ,having been closed to passengers for 6 years already, leaving many stations to demolition. A small group of preservationists made a deal with BR in 1971 to leave Castle Rock’s main station intact, since the group’s new society didn’t have an official home. Soon after BR left the area, the preservationists moved in to secure the station and begin work on bringing it back to running again. This was achieved in 1974 and the first loco to run on the newly restored station was a local Andrew Barclay 0-4-0 which used to work at the paper mill near the river. Soon after, another locomotive arrived. This time it was a ex-BR Black 5 fresh from the scrapyard.

Later, the society extended their small track to Broadsword station in 1979. During this time, another society of preservationists moved in to restore the colliery the town was famous for. Later in the year a section of track was laid to connect the colliery to the railway once again. Also during this time, both societies’ rolling stock was increasing. With the gain of an E4 from the south and several ex-WD tank engines, the Castle Rock Heritage Railway society formed a longer timetable to accommodate holidays. As for the colliery, more Barclay 0-4-0s and an Avonside B4 0-6-0 lent a helping hand in shunting the abandoned coal stock from the sidings, since by this time the colliery was only 20% restored and much of it was still an overgrown mess. It wouldn’t be until 2004 when the colliery would be three quarters restored.

The shunting puzzle is to represent a small set of sidings that are at the end of the branch line to the colliery and are hidden behind the sheds where both societies restore their rolling stock. Usually it is used to dump wrecks and broken stock, however sometimes it is used to hide special guests from public view until big events.