Eaton Hall Railway

The Eaton Hall Railway was a 381mm minimum gauge railway built for the Duke of Westminster at his Eaton Hall estate in Cheshire. 

Belgrave engine shed, all images [1]

Information
Type:	Private Railway (Eaton Hall Railway)
Opened:	1896
Closed:	1946

The railway was built by Sir Arthur Heywood, who had previously built his own minimum gauge railway at Duffield Bank. The railway was mainly used to transport fuel to Eaton Hall though there was also other goods carried and sometimes passengers too. The railway included a branch to the estate's brickworks and the estate workshop.

The railway operated three steam locomotives. Most of the rolling stock consisted of freight wagons though there were also a couple of passenger carriages and a parcel van for carrying game after a shoot. The line was closed in 1946. In 1994 a garden railway also to 381mm gauge was opened at Eaton Hall and is operated when the estate is open to the public.

Balderton Junction, the main yard

One of the goods trains, notice the ER on the front of the locomotive

Eaton terminus and carriage shed

Estate works sidings

The first locomotive, Katie

[1] Sir Arthur Heywood, Minimum Gauge Railways (1894)