The former Dobwalls collection moves to Melbourne - maybe

Rumour has it that the former Dobwalls collection (7¼" gauge - see below) has been sold to someone associated with Puffing Billy and will be based near Melbourne.

Watch this space for updates.

Dobwalls Adventure Park was a family-run visitor attraction in the village of Dobwalls, near Liskeard, Cornwall. Founded in 1970, by John Southern OBE, the park was one of Cornwall's top visitor attractions.

The park consisted of two miniature railway networks complemented by large play areas and recreational grounds, both indoors and outdoors, an award-winning art gallery and woodland walks.

The park closed at the end of the 2006 season for redevelopment work. In June 2007 it was announced that it would not reopen in its original form as an adventure park.

The Locomotives that make up the collection included:

William Jeffers (Big Boy 4008 - photo above) - The only working passenger carrying model remaining anywhere in the world (soon to change) of what were the world’s largest and most powerful steam locomotives ever built.

Queen of Wyoming (Union Pacific FEF-1 4-8-4) - A model of one of the most successful classes of steam locomotives ever built, affectionately known as the mighty 800’s.

Queen of Nebraska (Union Pacific FEF-3 4-8-4) - just like the original prototype FEF-3s, the Queen of Nebraska is fitted with twin blastpipes and chimney and smoke deflectors like the originals.

Otto Mears – A highly popular K37 class steam locomotive named after General Palmer’s (the builder of the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad) chief engineer and surveyor.

Mathias Baldwin - an extremely fine model of the highly abundant, successful and eye-catching General Purpose Class diesels built by EMD (Electro-Motive Division of General Motors Ltd).

Spirit of America - This is a replica of the Class E8 twin unit passenger diesel, many hundreds of which were built by the EMD for numerous US lines in the 1950s.

Pioneer - the Pioneer locomotive represents the EMD F45 ‘Cowl’ diesel, built originally for passenger service on the famous Atchison Topeka and Santa Fe Railway.

Centennial (Union Pacific DDA40X) - a truly unique working model of the World’s largest and most powerful diesel locomotive.

Information on the railway and locos from UK Miniature Railways

Information on the move to Australia from the Yahoo! discussion group UKminiaturerailways

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