The Salfords Light Railway (UK), a ground-level 5" gauge line in only 25' x 75'

By John Oxlade, April 2010. e: john.oxlade@gmail.com

(Article originally published on John's personal website: www.worldrailfans.info)

The Salfords Light Railway was my first personal, miniature railway built in England (I had helped build a 7¼" gauge line some years earlier).

The line was built around my small (75' x 25') garden in Salfords (Surrey, not Manchester). The site was far from ideal, but it did show what was possible in a small suburban garden. It also proved to me that 5" gauge was too narrow for carrying the public. I started construction of the line in early 2002 and dismantled it in December 2004 as we emigrated to New Zealand.

If you'd like, you can visit the website I setup to document its construction at: www.worldrailfans.info/GardenRailway/SLRHome.shtml, but here's a selection of photographs.

Pip (now my wife) was the first visitor to the line in 2002

My two locos, the Ride on Railways TROJAN and a quarry Hunslet PETER

(The slate wagons and guard's van behind PETER were visiting)

Dave Smallbone driving PETER

(Dave was also involved with building the Merstham Valley Railway in 1989)

My niece Natalie driving TROJAN with James as a passenger during the early days (before the coach body was built)

No gathering of friends was complete without getting the trains out

This view out of my bedroom window in June 2003 shows the whole railway as it was up to the point of dismantling in December 2004 prior to emigrating to New Zealand. It never was "finished" (if any railway ever is).

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