Best book/books on estate Railways

[RateTheFreight]

Hi all,

 

I’m after some advice on the best books out there centred on estate Railways. My interest would tend to be towards the miniature Gauge stuff (think Heywood and 15inch) Railways and their stock, layout, pictures etc but am open to suggestions.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

Greg

[Nearholmer]

Despite the level of interest in the topic among modellers, estate railways were exceedingly rare, it was an idea that Heywood promoted, but which didn't really take wing.

 

Smithers' "Sir Arthur Heywood and the Fifteen Inch Gauge Railway" is the one to go for, it is a really solid work of reference, then if you want to broaden to cover agricultural railways then "The Lincolnshire Potato Railways".

 

There were other estate railways, some of which we touched on in another thread, plus things that have some similarity, like the grouse moor railway at Dalmunzie, and short non-loco lines to serve cowsheds, the kitchens of huge houses, chicken farms etc, but not all that many in Britain.

 

Extensive agricultural estate railways were really a German and French thing.

 

Kevin

[RateTheFreight]

Thanks Kevin,

 

I’d read the Lincolnshire Potatoe Railway book preciously which made an interesting read.

 

Out of interest, with regards to Heywood’s 15inch Railways, were they a hobby or served a formal purpose, ie used to move gardening materials around the estate and so forth?

 

Greg

Edited January 8, 2019 by RateTheFreight

[Phil Traxson]

Hi Greg,

 

The ones on my shelf are

 

The Duffield Bank and Eaton Hall Railways by Howard Clayton    Pub. Oakwood Press 1968

 

Haywood's Minimum Gauge Railways  by Sir Arthur Heywood      Turntable Railway Classic Reprint  1974  ISBN 0 902844 26 1

 

Both of the above are out of print I believe, probably need an internet search for them. The Heywood book is a reprint of his own "How To" of 1898. 

 

Sir Arthur Heywood and the Fifteen Inch Gauge Railway  by Mark Smithers      Plateway Press   ISBN 1-87 1980-22-4

 

In my opinion the best info if you need just one book, terrific amount of research appears to have gone into this book by Mark Smithers.

 

The Sand Hutton Light Railway (3rd edition) by K.E.Hartley and Paul Ingham     RCL Publications   ISBN 978-0-9565157-3-5

 

Another superb, well researched book, typical RCL publication. The first and second editions of this were paperback published by The Narrow Gauge Railway Society and can some times be found in 2nd hand boxes at model railway exhibitions.

 

Unfortunately most of these books are limited print runs and can command high second hand prices, but the one I have seen at exhibitions most is Sir Arthur Heywood's  reprint, which was his own publicity  book and has great detail of the how and why in diagrams and photo's. The prices he quotes make interesting reading!

 

Hope this helps

 

Phil T.    

[tractionman]

Good choices Phil T, the Sand Hutton book is an absolute delight and well worth the cash:

 

https://narrowgaugeandindustrial.co.uk/products/sand-hutton-light-railway

 

Also to be recommended is Smithers' book 'An Illustrated History of 18 Inch Gauge Steam Railways', £16 here:

 

https://www.abebooks.co.uk/9780860934998/Illustrated-History-Inch-Gauge-Steam-0860934993/plp

 

I have contemplated modelling something 18"-gauge using 9mm track in 5.5mm scale, there's just something about 18"-gauge railways...

 

cheers,

 

Keith

[Nearholmer]

It all started as a sort of intelligent, rich man's hobby, then became a fully-thought-out, potentially commercial, proposition, but IIRC the only practical railway that was fully equipped to his 'recipe' was the line at Eaton Hall, which The Duke of Westminster commissioned.

 

The trouble with Heywood's ideas were that, in the estate application, they led to a perfectly refined system that could do nothing more than could be done with an "off the shelf" 2ft gauge system at, probably, a half or less the price. it was a 100% solution when the 80% solution was plenty good enough.

 

His work demonstrated the virtues of using bogie, rather than four-wheeled, rolling stock on narrow gauges, but whether it was really decisive in causing progress in that direction is another matter. His work had some influence on military railway thinking, and probably helped cause the rather regretted decision to use 18" gauge railways 'on campaign', but he probably had more influence on the "large miniature" railways that were built for pleasure than true "industrials'. His locomotive articulation system worked very well, but way too fancy for industrial railways and I don't think it was ever applied to a public railway, unlike the European equivalents.

 

18" gauge has a different history, and was applied very practically in confined places, workshops etc. The Sand Hutton was only 18" gauge because of the availability of second hand material from an application where 18" was optimal ....... it was otherwise a daft gauge for a rural railway over some distance.

Edited January 8, 2019 by Nearholmer

[Mike Bellamy]

 

 

The ones on my shelf are . . . . . . . . 

 

   

 

Phil - Pleased to see you are getting settled into the new house - 12 months after our move, my books are still in boxes in the shed. At least we aren't storing stuff in the bath anymore as I took that out over Christmas (don't worry we still have a separate shower !)

 

Mike

.

[RateTheFreight]

It all started as a sort of intelligent, rich man's hobby, then became a fully-thought-out, potentially commercial, proposition, but IIRC the only practical railway that was fully equipped to his 'recipe' was the line at Eaton Hall, which The Duke of Westminster commissioned.

 

The trouble with Heywood's ideas were that, in the estate application, they led to a perfectly refined system that could do nothing more than could be done with an "off the shelf" 2ft gauge system at, probably, a half or less the price. it was a 100% solution when the 80% solution was plenty good enough.

 

His work demonstrated the virtues of using bogie, rather than four-wheeled, rolling stock on narrow gauges, but whether it was really decisive in causing progress in that direction is another matter. His work had some influence on military railway thinking, and probably helped cause the rather regretted decision to use 18" gauge railways 'on campaign', but he probably had more influence on the "large miniature" railways that were built for pleasure than true "industrials'. His locomotive articulation system worked very well, but way too fancy for industrial railways and I don't think it was ever applied to a public railway, unlike the European equivalents.

 

18" gauge has a different history, and was applied very practically in confined places, workshops etc. The Sand Hutton was only 18" gauge because of the availability of second hand material from an application where 18" was optimal ....... it was otherwise a daft gauge for a rural railway over some distance.

Thanks for the info, as always I bow to your railway knowledge; very impressive!

 

The more I’ve looked up about the Eaton Hall railway the more interesting it sounds in that it appears to have been commissioned to provide a real service to the estate, I.e. the linking of the mainline railway station to the estate, the movement of goods and stores to the estate and so forth in addition to providing a pleasant means to view the gardens.

 

I saw ‘Berger Hall’ at Warley recently and loved what the owner had done wth it and how the railway looked perfect within the landscape, particularly the section with the small engine shed. The layout was minimal size too which is always attractive to the space starved modeller.

 

Greg

[009 micro modeller]

It all started as a sort of intelligent, rich man's hobby, then became a fully-thought-out, potentially commercial, proposition, but IIRC the only practical railway that was fully equipped to his 'recipe' was the line at Eaton Hall, which The Duke of Westminster commissioned.

 

The trouble with Heywood's ideas were that, in the estate application, they led to a perfectly refined system that could do nothing more than could be done with an "off the shelf" 2ft gauge system at, probably, a half or less the price. it was a 100% solution when the 80% solution was plenty good enough.

 

His work demonstrated the virtues of using bogie, rather than four-wheeled, rolling stock on narrow gauges, but whether it was really decisive in causing progress in that direction is another matter. His work had some influence on military railway thinking, and probably helped cause the rather regretted decision to use 18" gauge railways 'on campaign', but he probably had more influence on the "large miniature" railways that were built for pleasure than true "industrials'. His locomotive articulation system worked very well, but way too fancy for industrial railways and I don't think it was ever applied to a public railway, unlike the European equivalents.

 

18" gauge has a different history, and was applied very practically in confined places, workshops etc. The Sand Hutton was only 18" gauge because of the availability of second hand material from an application where 18" was optimal ....... it was otherwise a daft gauge for a rural railway over some distance.

Wasn’t Sand Hutton 15” originally before being regauged and extended?

 

The point about cost compared to 2ft gauge is an interesting one as I’ve seen this mentioned in a modern context in relation to ‘new generation’ 15” lines (long ones like Bure Valley and Kirklees especially) which potentially could have been built slightly cheaper using ex-industrial 2ft gauge equipment. In modern times the availability of secondhand equipment has become a factor and probably tips the balance in favour of 2ft for longer lines, while the wish to have something a bit more unusual (like the Bure ZBs) is perhaps a reason for choosing 15”. Back on topic, Shillingstone was an interesting ‘estate railway’ but was even smaller at 10 1/4”.

[Nearholmer]

Yes, I think there might have been a short miniature line before the full 18” gauge route.

 

Blakesley Hall is another one worth looking at, btw.

 

The thing about 2ft gauge ‘back in the day’ is that it was standard kit, widely sold, with all the price advantages that brings.

[Phil Traxson]

Good choices Phil T, the Sand Hutton book is an absolute delight and well worth the cash:

 

https://narrowgaugeandindustrial.co.uk/products/sand-hutton-light-railway

 

Also to be recommended is Smithers' book 'An Illustrated History of 18 Inch Gauge Steam Railways', £16 here:

 

https://www.abebooks.co.uk/9780860934998/Illustrated-History-Inch-Gauge-Steam-0860934993/plp

 

I have contemplated modelling something 18"-gauge using 9mm track in 5.5mm scale, there's just something about 18"-gauge railways...

 

cheers,

 

Keith

Forgot the 18" one, but that's on the shelf too. I scratch built a Woolwich coach at 10.5mm gauge in 7 mm scale in the early 1990's but never followed it with anything else. It's still in my display case on a piece of commercial 10.5 track.

 

Phil T.

Edited January 8, 2019 by Phil Traxson

[Andy Kirkham]

Thanks Kevin,

 

I’d read the Lincolnshire Potatoe Railway book preciously which made an interesting read.

 

Out of interest, with regards to Heywood’s 15inch Railways, were they a hobby or served a formal purpose, ie used to move gardening materials around the estate and so forth?

 

Greg

Heywood's own railway at Duffield Bank was intended to demonstrate the principles of his system and didn't have much of a role in practical transport. Eaton Hall, on the other hand was very much a utilitarian line carrying coal and other supplies from Balderton on the GWR to the big house.

[Pacific231G]

I don't think it would be fair to describe it as a a "hobby" but Heywood's position of independent family wealth did give him the freedom to pursue his ideas for minimum gauge railways without needing to turn a profit. It's quite interesting to contrast Heywood's work with that of Paul Decauville who developed the idea of the portable railway with enormous success and was imitated (or possibly licensed) by Robert Hudson and Arthur Koppel amongst others.

 

Accordng to his own writings, Heywood arrived at the 15inch gauge by experimentation and theory then devoted his own resources and time to developing it. His focus seems to have been on creating a minimum sized version of an otherwise fairly conventional ballasted railway with wooden sleepers as a fairly permanent transport system for large estates.

 

Paul Decauville, on the other hand, was an entrepeneur who originally developed his portable railway system (likely inspired by the 30" gauge portable system promoted by William Crosskill) to meet the needs on his own farm to bring in the annual sugar beet harvest . As a manufacturer of agricultural machinery he then saw its potential as a manufactured product.  Decauvlille's approach was therefore essentially pragmatic and that led him to supply track and rolling stock to three gauges, 400mm, 500mm or 600mm (though he'd happily produce for other gauges to order)

 

400mm gauge is 15 ³/₄ inch so very close to Heywood's 15inch but Decauville only provided it for human and animal power- mostly hand pushed wagons within industrial and agricultural sites- rather than for longer distances.  Decauville would supply steam locos for any gauge from 500mm to 1 metre but that wouldn't have included even the 18inch gauge widely used in British railway works and defence establishments (e.g. Woolwich Arsenal) often with small locomotives. 

 

Even 2ft/600mm gauge proved rather narrow for permanent commercial railways of any length. Paul Decauville persuaded the French government to approve 600mm alongside metre and standard gauge for purely local railways and got the concessions to build light railways between Pithiviers and Toury in Loiret, in Cavados and around Royan but they were all financially unsuccessful.  In industry and agriculture though Decauville was so successful that in most of the world his name became the generic term (like Hoover for vacuum cleaners) for the class of railway that the Germans refer to as Feldbahnen.

 

(I've always felt rather sorry for the troops and administrators who had to use the 600mm gauge French military railways that ran for hundreds of miles across the deserts of North Africa)

Edited January 8, 2019 by Pacific231G