Man builds full size railway in his back garden
A widow says she is continuing the legacy of her late husband by preserving a full-sized train line he built - in her back garden.
Elizabeth Shutt said her husband of 16 years, Colin, created the quarter mile line - named the ‘East Wressle and Brind Railway’ - in the 22-acre grounds of their home.
He went on to acquire a diesel locomotive and two pieces of rolling stock before building a 1920s-style railway station - with the help of a band of volunteers.
Elizabeth said the design engineer, who ‘always had a project on the go’, lovingly worked on the railway before his death in February 2016 at the age of 70.
But following his passing, Elizabeth allowed his original team of helpers to continue restoring the line's beautiful period engine and goods wagons.
Elizabeth Shutt said her husband of 16 years, Colin, created the quarter mile line - named the ‘East Wressle and Brind Railway’ - in the 22-acre grounds of their home.
He went on to acquire a diesel locomotive and two pieces of rolling stock before building a 1920s-style railway station - with the help of a band of volunteers.
Elizabeth said the design engineer, who ‘always had a project on the go’, lovingly worked on the railway before his death in February 2016 at the age of 70.
But following his passing, Elizabeth allowed his original team of helpers to continue restoring the line's beautiful period engine and goods wagons.
Category
😹
FunTranscript
00:00I'm Elizabeth Shutt and we're at the East Resolent Bringe Railway. It was
00:05built by my husband Colin Shutt. He initially built a rail bus for a
00:12competition. Having built the rail bus he then decided he needed to build a
00:17railway to run it on and so we started building it in 2004 and slowly over the
00:26years we have built it to what it is now. Initially it was just him and me
00:33working on laying 10-foot panels of track and then his friends joined him
00:40and we then have been working on it since then. There have been various
00:43friends that have joined us and parted but there is a core of about five of us
00:49who work on the railway and keep it going. He took his rail bus to the
00:54Derwent Light Railway in exchange for which they gave him some rather
00:59derelict rolling stock which we've restored over the years so that we now
01:05have a Ruston engine which I bought him as a birthday present on condition that
01:11he paid for have it removed and it actually cost him more to have it
01:15removed to here than it did for me to buy it. So don't buy a Ruston.
01:21And so slowly we've restored it all, built it all. My job really is nothing to do
01:28with the railway now. I do the garden. The railway children, with the nickname we
01:34have the Friends, they'd restore and keep the railway going. We have a 1920s
01:42stroke 30s railway station. We have about a quarter of a mile of track. We have a
01:50engine shed and we have the station master's house. It is all enclosed in my
01:58garden and you can't see it very well from the road or from anywhere really
02:03unless you peep over the gate at the level crossing. So it's really the secret
02:10railway that's in the secret garden because most people that pass don't even
02:15know it's there.