Newsbourgh Miniature Railway

The Newsbourgh Miniature Railway (NMR) is a 15-inch gauge miniature railway located half a mile outside Newsbourgh heading towards Angloberk. It runs for 17 miles (27.2km) from Newsbourgh West to Colina and is primary a passenger line.

## History

The NMR was opened in 1934 by three Newsbourgh residents following a visit to the Romney, Hythe & Dymchurch Railway (RH&DR) three years previously. Originally the line was meant to provide goods service to Colina but a lack of a mainline connection and consistently rejected proposals to the Southern Railway (SR) prevented this, resulting in the line only being used for passenger traffic, seeing most of it during school days. The NMR was soon hitting hard times in the 1950s due to declining ridership due to increased car ownership, resulting in many services being cut and in 1954, after 20 years of private operation, the NMR was placed into the town's ownership to keep the miniature railway afloat and prevent it from closure. This resulted in several upgrades to aging system that was originally intended to be nothing more than a "train set" as it was joked due to the size of its locomotives.

In 1983, following the opening of South Western Heritage Railway (SWHR), the NMR was proposed for a station to finally link the standard gauge route with the miniature railway and allow for better access to Colina by train, which was approved with a station opened at Newsbourgh West, which opened for public operations in the end of the 1980s.

## Stations

* Newsbough West (opened in 1989)
* Catalina (opened in 1934)
* KGV station (opened in 1934)
* Danwell (opened in 1934)
* Oakworth (opened in 1937)
* South Colina (opened in 1994)
* Colina (opened in 1934)

## Fleet

The NMR owns five locomotives, with all of them being based on mainline tender locomotives.

1. Carson (based off LNWR Prince of Wales 4-6-0)
2. Jerald (based off GWR 111 'The Great Bear' 4-6-2)
3. Kato (based off GER Y14 0-6-0)
4. Watkins (based off GCR 8K 2-8-0)
5. Granger (based off LYR Dreadnought 4-6-0)

## Basis

The Newsbourgh Miniature Railway is based off the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway (RH&DR) in Kent, in southeast England. The line was a 15-inch gauge 13 1/2 mile-long light railway opened in 1927 by racing drivers and railway enthusiasts Captain John Edwards Presgrave "Jack" Howey (1886-1963) and Count Louis Zborowski (1895-1924) following the previous' failed attempt to purchase the Ravenglass & Eskdale Railway (R&ER) in Cambria, northwest England., and seeing the potential of a 15-inch gauge railway between New Romney and Hythe. The railway had seven locomotives built for the railway (five 4-6-2s and two 4-8-2s) by Davey Paxman & Co. between 1925 and 1927. During WWII, the railway was taken over by the government and was patrolled by a miniature armoured train, made from two modified R&ER hoppers and RH&DR 4-8-2 'Hercules' and played a major role in Operation PLUTO (Pipe Line Under The Ocean). After WWII, the line returned to regular passenger operations and is still in commercial operation. The railway once held the title of the "smallest public railway in the world" until briefly between 1978 and 1979 and finally in 1982.

## Trivia

The NMR's history of having no goods traffic could be inspired by how light railways were originally not meant to handle goods trains.

In total, the NMR has two more stations than the SWHR.

The NMR is 4 1/2 miles longer than its basis.