Ropsely Heath Light Railway

3 minutes of fame

3d printing, electronics and trams
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A very pleasant trip to this privately owned 10 1/4 gauge railway, which also has a G Scale garden railway with an impressive range of stock.

After spending a few hours doing a bit of maintenance, we ran some of my stock around, along with a Thomas loco for some visitors, before we steamed up a variety of gas powered locos.

The owner - Robert Holland has an incredible fleet of locos from a variety of manufacturers including Roundhouse. His oldest steamer is 43 years old purchased by his father, but is still operational, even though a piston seal needed attention.

The line features around 50M of double track in a simple loop, with a large station area and additional steaming up sidings.

Once we'd finished, I couldn't turn down the offer of a couple of laps of the almost 3/4 mile long 10 1/4 line, driving Nimrod, the resident Station Road Steam loco. She's a bit under powered, being based on the 7 1/4 design and the line features gradients up to around 1 in 55, so you need to watch the gradient boards around the track! There's also a diesel engine and electric tram, all in immaculate condition.

There was around 17 of us there, with the line run much as an informal club. Although most people focus on the bigger stuff, the sheer amount of G Scale stock made for an enjoyable visit.

I've been invited back next Friday, to continue working on the garden railway, while the site is open to the public on Saturday 18 April, 1-5.

There's a couple of coal powered locos, including a Garrett, which take some practice to learn how to steam well, so looking forward to the challenge!

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Looks to be a very interesting site, must try to get there with a couple if my Battery Conversions. Not too far to drive.
 
Looks to be a very interesting site, must try to get there with a couple if my Battery Conversions. Not too far to drive.
Nip down on an open day. I'm sure you'd be welcome to run some stock. Robert the owner is very friendly and enjoys seeing people playing with his toys!
 
Just to mention the next open day is this Saturday 11 July. The Gscale G45 garden railway will be in operation all afternoon and you're welcome to bring any battery or steam powered locos for a play. We'll also have quite a few steam locos in operation, plenty of coaching stock and our Thomas the Tank Engine trains for the small people.

The 10 1/4 line will be in operation, with our innovative fire train following the steam loco around, just in case!

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