With grateful thanks to the McAlpine Family ,we visit the railway at Fawley Hill, a private railway built by the late Sir William McAlpine a lifelong enthusiast of railways and businessman and now operated and maintained by volunteers and staff at the estate.
The railway is listed as being the steepest graded passenger carrying line in the World at 1 in 13 and the railways own steam locomotive puts on a good display when climbing it, passengers are treated to the option of riding in the open waggon or the brake van behind the locomotive.
The railway is operated by two signalboxes, the upper one being ex Shobnall Maltings cabin ex Burton on Trent from the internal brewery network of lines and was the first building acquired by Sir William on site, followed by many others.
Between the upper box and the lower cabin (Bourne again junction) blocks and bells are used to signal trains via a telegraphed pole route, though at the time of the visit as is noted by the staff , recent storms had caused some damage to one of the wired sections which was due to be fixed.
The estate also has a museum with a large collection of interesting exhibits including signalling ones and is well worth visiting, we have not included any examples from the museum in the video in line with the estates policy on photography inside.
Please note the estate and the railway are private, invite is by invitation normally though there are a few open days a year with other events, for more details see;
fawleyhill.co.uk/events/
30 окт 2024
