The Perrygrove Railway, on the edge of the Royal Forest of Dean, is a 15″ gauge line which runs for ¾ mile through farmland and woods to the site of a disused iron mine, giving a 1½ mile round trip which includes two sections with 1 in 30 gradients.

Photos © Perrygrove Railway

Although it is the same gauge as the Romney Hythe and Dymchurch, this is certainly not a miniature railway. It is a minimum gauge line built according to the ideas of Sir Arthur Heywood, and the principal locomotive (Exmoor-built 0-6-0T Spirit of Adventure) is the world’s first 15″ gauge loco in which the driver can stand upright in the cab. Other rolling stock on the line has been converted from 2′ gauge and even 2′6″ gauge.

When Michael and Frances Crofts bought Perrygrove Farm in 1993 it consisted of a very dilapidated and run-down smallholding of 22 acres including attractive rolling farmland and a wood - but everything including the buildings and all the fences was in very poor condition. Planning permission for the railway was granted in 1994 and excavations commenced in earnest in April 1995. The railway inspector approved the finished line in time for it to open on 1st August 1996. The railway was designed and the project was managed by the owners. Michael Crofts is a chartered surveyor who specialises in the management of large property portfolios, particularly for retail companies, and his wife Frances works for a bank. However their skills now include civil, mechanical and structural engineering - all learned “on the job”.

The railway has four stations. Perrygrove is the starting point, with turntable, workshops and sidings serving a farmyard. There is a station at Rookwood where sidings are being laid for farm and timber traffic, and a halt at Heywood. The terminus is named ‘Oak Iron’, after the adjacent mine. Trains depart from Perrygrove at 35 minute intervals and all public services are steam hauled.

More locomotives will be based on the line in the near future. The fleet of wagons is being expanded for farm goods traffic, and ground frames have been purchased to enable more sidings to be brought in to use.

You can read more about this railway, and see a lot more photos, at the Perrygrove website.