Beeches Light Railway

The Beeches Light Railway at Ringkingpong Station
Map of Beeches Light Railway

The Beeches Light Railway is a private narrow gauge railway in Steeple Aston in the garden of Adrian Shooter, the former director of Chiltern Railways. The line contains one station, Rinkingpong Road (Bengali: রিনকিংপং রোড) at an elevation of 351 feet (107 m) above sea-level.[1]

Track

The nearly 1 mile (1.6 km) railway track with a gauge of 2 ft (610 mm) was built between 2002 and 2004.[2] It resembles a figure of eight, with a loop around the back garden and another around the front, where it crosses the main drive. Ringkingpong Station, an Indian style railway station and sheds are behind the house. These follow an Indian theme from a fare evasion signs citing Indian Rupees, to the station's name, the Rinkingpong Road and some of the decoration used inside the building. Although the railway is private, and not subject to rail regulations, it is run professionally by Shooter and some volunteers with railway rulebooks and regulations, and the steam engine has to be certified each year.[3]

Steam locomotive

A steam locomotive of the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway in deepest Oxfordshire

The rolling stock has a history that can be traced back well over a hundred years, as one of its locomotives was built in 1889. This Class 'B' steam locomotive 778,[4][5] the Sharp Stewart 3518, No 19 was originally sold to India’s Darjeeling Himalayan Railway between New Jalpaiguri and Siliguri, which was inaugurated in 1878. It was used there until 1960 or according to other sources 1962, and was then sold to a railway enthusiast in the USA, Elliot Donnelley,[6] who was the boss and major shareholder in RR Donnelley Co, which is a very large printer and publisher in Chicago. After he died in 1975 it was passed to the Hesston Steam Museum,[2] where it stayed until it was bought by Adrian Shooter in 2002 and restored to use again. Two original carriages, and two modern replicas of the carriages used on the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway are occasionally used to transport invited guests.[2][3][7][8][9] Carriages to accompany the locomotive were commissioned from Boston Lodge works.[10][11][12]

Draisine

Adrian Shooter's draisine of the type 'Ford Model T' on the Beeches Light Railway

Shooter owns also a replica Ford Model-T motorcar that he runs on the railtracks. It is based on a modified car used by the USA railway to inspect tracks[3] on the Sandy River and Rangeley Lakes Railroad. The replica was commissioned from the Statfold Barn Railway.[13] It includes a jacking system that will lift the wheels free of the rails and allow it to be rotated on its axis in order to go the other way round.[14]

Additional rolling stock

Stored in the railway shed is some rolling stock from the London Mail Rail, an underground goods railway line, which was used to transport letters and parcels between sorting depots before it was mothballed.[3]

References

  1. ↑ Plumb, Geoff (24 June 2011). "রিনকিংপং রোড Rinkingpong Road" (photograph). Retrieved 25 February 2013.
  2. 1 2 3 Sinha, Kounteya (18 September 2014). "Love for Darjeeling toy train makes Briton buys off world's oldest surviving locomotive". Times of India. Retrieved 13 January 2016. model number 778 … run it in his personal garden … tracks over 1.5 km is in the form of a loop … Ambassador car that runs by the train when it chugs through his garden to give it a real feel of Darjeeling. … station that looks exactly like the original Sukna station
  3. 1 2 3 4 Ian Mansfield: The Beeches Light Railway – a private steam railway. Uploaded on 10 July 2011. Retrieved on 19 February 2016.
  4. ↑ "One of the original "B Class" Sharp Stewart Steam Locomotive Comes Home.". Darjeeling Himalayan Railway Society. Retrieved 25 February 2014.
  5. ↑ Yang, Alice (11 November 2011). "Interview: Adrian Shooter". Felix Online. Retrieved 25 February 2014.
  6. ↑ The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway Society: DHR B class Number 19 celebrates its 120th Birthday.
  7. ↑ Hearn, Dan (28 May 2010). "Rail boss with a special train set". Oxford Mail. Retrieved 10 December 2015. three-acre estate at Steeple Aston, near Bicester.
  8. ↑ Debroy, Bibek (1 January 2016). "Locomotive number 778". Business Standard. India. owns Beeches Light Railway. Indeed, it operates out of his residence in Steeple Aston, Oxfordshire.
  9. ↑ Sharma, Anuradha (14 August 2014). "An Indian Relic in Oxfordshire". Forbes India. Retrieved 13 January 2015. Shooter bought an “arts and crafts” style house in Steeple Aston village, shipped in a Darjeeling Himalayan Railway (DHR) steam locomotive and set up his own private railway—the Beeches Light Railway—in his three-acre garden.
  10. ↑ Dimmick, R (4 May 2012). New Build - Darjeeling Himalaya Railway Carriages (brochure). Boston Lodge Engineering. Ffestiniog and Welsh Highland Railways. pp. 9, 11. Retrieved 10 December 2015.
  11. ↑ Sinha, Kounteya (19 September 2014). "Oldest toy train chugs through British garden". Times of India. Retrieved 13 January 2016. two replicas of DHR carriages were constructed at the Boston Lodge Works of the Ffestiniog Railway. These and the locomotive run in Adrian Shooter's private garden railway.
  12. ↑ Sinha, Kounteya (20 September 2014). "A Darjeeling joyride in a British garden". Times of India. Retrieved 13 January 2016.
  13. ↑ "July fun for all the family on the rails!". rail.co.uk. 27 May 2015. Retrieved 13 January 2016. Model T railcar … based on a Sandy River and Rangeley Lakes Railway (Maine, USA) Superintendent’s Inspection Car. … built for Adrian Shooter at the Statfold Barn Railway in 2008 and resides at Adrian's private Beeches Light Railway
  14. ↑ Chris Allen: Beeches Light Railway - interesting vehicle. The Geograph No 4111684.

Coordinates: 51°55′25″N 1°18′32″W / 51.92374°N 1.308797°W / 51.92374; -1.308797

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