The Duffield Bank Railway was a minimum gauge railway built by Sir Arthur Heywood in his garden near
Duffield in Derbyshire [1]. Although it can be considered an elaborate garden railway, it was also a demonstrator for the kind of minimum gauge railways Sir Heywood thought could be used elsewhere.
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| Tennis Ground station, all images [3] |
| Information |
| Type: |
Private Railway (Duffield Bank Railway) |
| Opened: |
1874 |
| Closed: |
1916 |
| Stations: |
6 |
Sir Heywood thought that minimum gauge railways, in the case of the Duffield Bank Railway 15 inch (381mm) gauge, could be used by mines, quarries and agriculture [2]. He thought the railways would be easier and cheaper to build, operate and move than more conventional railways. He began building a demonstrator line in his garden in 1874, which eventually stretched for about a mile (1.6km) in length. The Duffield Bank Railway had workshops, tunnels, a viaduct and six stations.
A small fleet of steam locomotives operated on Sir Heywood's railway with a variety of freight and passenger rolling stock, even a dining car! Despite many demonstrations to the military, associations and businessmen he was only able to interest the Duke of Westminster enough to build another railway. The
Eaton Hall Railway operated in Cheshire from 1896 to 1946.
Sir Heywood died in 1916, his railway was closed soon afterwards and little trace now remains of it. Most of the rolling stock moved to the Ravenglass & Eskdale Railway in Cumbria, some of which is still in use.
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| Viaduct |
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| The railway had a number of very tight curves as can be seen here |
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| A goods train |
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| A passenger train |
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| Ella, one of the locomotives |
[1] Vic Mitchell & Keith Smith, Branch Line to Wirksworth (Middleton Press, 2017) Fig. 110[2] Royston Morris, Miniature Railway Locomotives & Rolling Stock (Amberley Publishing, 2018) p. 3
[3] Sir Arthur Heywood, Minimum Gauge Railways (1894)
