Lakeside Miniature Railway, Pleasureland Terminus

The

gauge Gauge ( or ) may refer to: Measurement * Gauge (instrument), any of a variety of measuring instruments * Gauge (firearms) * Wire gauge, a measure of the size of a wire ** American wire gauge, a common measure of nonferrous wire diameter, es ...

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Lakeside Miniature Railway runs along the seaward side of the Marine Lake in

Southport Southport is a seaside town in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton in Merseyside, England. At the 2001 census, it had a population of 90,336, making it the eleventh most populous settlement in North West England. Southport lies on the Irish ...

, England.

Route

The railway originally consisted of a straight running line on the seaward shore of the Southport Marine Lake with a

run-round loop A headshunt (or escape track in the United States) is a short length of track provided to release locomotives at terminal platforms, or to allow shunting to take place clear of main lines. Terminal headshunt A 'terminal headshunt' is a short l ...

at each end. In 1948 the line was extended northwards under

Southport Pier Southport Pier is a pleasure pier in Southport, Merseyside, England. Opened in August 1860, it is the oldest iron pier in the country. Its length of makes it the second-longest in Great Britain, after Southend Pier. Although at one time span ...

, followed by a sharp 90-degree curve seawards into a new terminus next to and named after Marine Parade. This layout remains today with the round trip covering . Early photographs variously name the southern terminus ''White City'', ''Marine Drive''Early postcard
''Liverpool Echo'' and ''Lakeside'', but it has been referred to as the

Pleasureland ''Pleasureland'' is a 2003 Channel 4 feature-length television drama focusing on a group of teenagers in Liverpool who feel pressured to grow up. Written by Helen Blakeman, directed by Brian Percival and produced by Kudos, the makers of t ...

terminus for many years. In 2020 there were two workshops and an

engine shed The motive power depot (MPD) or locomotive depot, or traction maintenance depot (TMD), is the place where locomotives are usually housed, repaired and maintained when not being used. They were originally known as "running sheds", "engine shed ...

here, with a single island platform serving two running lines with

s which converge to form the running line alongside the lake. There is also a third siding for stock storage. In 2020 Pleasureland made significant investment in this terminus, adding a short platform on the eastern runround loop, a refreshment kiosk, a traditional roundabout and a helter-skelter, all aimed at the families with young children market. At the northern, Marine Parade, end of the line there are two platforms, though one has been taken out of use and its track lifted. Locomotives change ends using a run-round loop. The original station building at Marine Parade was completely rebuilt around 2010 but was demolished in 2019, leaving the floor tiles in place to show it's outline. In Summer 2020 a temporary refreshment facility was installed to test the market. The line is fully fenced and has no level crossings, it is unsignalled and operates on a

one engine in steam In railway signalling, a token is a physical object which a train driver is required to have or see before entering onto a particular section of single track. The token is clearly endorsed with the names of the section it belongs to. A token sys ...

basis. The original northern terminus was named ''Princes Park'', it closed when the line was extended. In 2020 the station building was still in good external condition.

History

The railway was built in 1911, with the first train on 25 May. It was constructed by Miniature Railways of Great Britain Ltd using materials provided by the model engineering business

Bassett-Lowke Bassett-Lowke was an English toy manufacturing company based in Northampton. Founded by Wenman Joseph Bassett-Lowke in 1898 or 1899, the company specialized in model railways, boats and ships, and construction sets. Bassett-Lowke started as a m ...

Henry Greenly Henry Greenly (1876–1947) was amongst the foremost miniature railway engineers of the 20th century, remembered as a master of engineering design. Miniature railways Greenly is perhaps best remembered for his miniature locomotive designs. He wor ...

provided expert engineering advice. The line was originally named Southport Miniature Railway, being operated by Dr Ladmore, a local dentist. Mr Griffiths Vaughan Llewelyn took the railway over after some years, renaming it Llewelyn's Miniature Railway. It passed from Llewelyn's hands before 1930, becoming Lakeside Miniature Railway, which it remains today. In 1945 the railway was sold to Harry Barlow who owned a local engineering company famous for building miniature locomotives. In 1968 John Spencer, a Pleasureland stallholder, purchased the railway and did much to improve it and tidy it up. In 2001 the line was sold again, this time to Don Clark, most recently being bought by

Pleasureland Southport Southport Pleasureland is an amusement park located in Southport, Merseyside, England. The park originally operated from 1913 to 2006 as Pleasureland Theme Park under the ownership of the Blackpool Pleasure Beach company. In 2007, the park re-o ...

in 2016. It was forced to close during the 2016 season because the heavily worn track led to derailments on the sharp curve. Extensive work on the track and route led to the line reopening in 2017, with an operational fleet of one locomotive - "Jenny". By 2020 Jenny was showing signs of heavy use; the railway exchanged its three unserviceable, stored locomotives for a fully operational Severn Lamb "Wild West" outline

Diesel-hydraulic A diesel locomotive is a type of railway locomotive in which the prime mover is a diesel engine. Several types of diesel locomotives have been developed, differing mainly in the means by which mechanical power is conveyed to the driving wheels ...

2-8-0 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents the wheel arrangement of two leading wheels on one axle, usually in a leading truck, eight powered and coupled driving wheels on four axles, and no trailing wheels. ...

. This locomotive was supplied new to

West Midlands Safari Park West Midland Safari and Leisure Park is a safari park located in Bewdley in Worcestershire, England. It was opened under the name of West Midland Safari Park in spring 1973. The park holds over 165 species of exotic animals, among other attracti ...

in 1979. Its engine was replaced by a Perkins 404D22 model in 2011. It was moved to Windmill Farm in 2015. The railway featured in scenes in the 1985

Goldcrest Films Goldcrest Films is an award-winning independent British distribution, production, post production, and finance company. Operating from London and New York, Goldcrest is a privately owned integrated filmed entertainment company. Goldcrest Films ov ...

production ''Mr Love'' starring Barry Jackson and Maurice Denham. The railway is one of the earliest of its type still running on its original route.

Rhyl Miniature Railway The Rhyl Miniature Railway (Welsh: ''Rheilffordd Fach y Rhyl'') is a gauge miniature railway line located in Rhyl on the North Wales Coast. The line runs in a circle around a boating lake near the promenade, to the west of the town centre. Th ...

opened on 1 May 1911 and still runs, but it closed during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, whilst Lakeside Miniature Railway remained open. The line therefore claims to be the oldest continuously running gauge railway in the world.Claim repeated here
in a local tourism website.

Locomotives

The line originally had two

steam locomotive A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, oil or, rarely, wood) to heat water in the locomot ...

s of the

Class 10 'Atlantic' design, named ''King George'' and ''Princess Elizabeth'', they were later supplemented by ''Katie'', an

0-4-0 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents one of the simplest possible types, that with two axles and four coupled wheels, all of which are driven. The wheels on the earliest four-coupled locomotives were ...

side tank built by that pioneer of the minimum gauge

Sir Arthur Heywood Sir Arthur Percival Heywood, 3rd Baronet (25 December 1849 – 19 April 1916) is best known today as the innovator of the fifteen inch minimum gauge railway, for estate use. Early life He was the eldest son of Sir Thomas Percival Heywood ...

. Where the two Bassett-Lowke locos had been supplied new Katie was third hand, having already worked on the

Eaton Hall Railway The Eaton Hall Railway was an early gauge minimum gauge railway, minimum gauge British narrow gauge railways#Estate railways, estate railway built in 1896 at Eaton Hall, Cheshire, Eaton Hall in Cheshire. The line, which connected the Grosvenor ...

(where she hauled a Royal train in 1897) and the

Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway The Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway is a minimum gauge heritage railway in Cumbria, England. The line runs from Ravenglass to Dalegarth Station near Boot in the valley of Eskdale, in the Lake District. At Ravenglass the line ends at Ravengl ...

in Cumbria. She did not spend long at Southport, arriving in 1919 and being sold on again in 1923 to the Fairbourne Miniature Railway. The Bassett-Lowke locos were sufficient for the original trains but as Southport increased in popularity as a holiday destination trains became busier and the locos were rebuilt to the larger class 30 standard. In 1948 the railway's motive power took a step towards the future with the building of a petrol-electric loco of wheel arrangement with a tender, built to look like Gresley's famous

LNER Class A4 The Class A4 is a class of streamlined 4-6-2 steam locomotive designed by Nigel Gresley for the London and North Eastern Railway in 1935. Their streamlined design gave them high-speed capability as well as making them instantly recognisable, ...

locomotives. The loco was built in Southport by Mr. Harry Barlow who had taken over the railway in 1945. These were the first of eight 15-inch gauge diesel-electric locomotives built by Barlow for a variety of railways. They used war-surplus

Fordson Fordson was a brand name of tractors and trucks. It was used on a range of mass-produced general-purpose tractors manufactured by Henry Ford & Son Inc from 1917 to 1920, by Ford Motor Company (U.S.) and Ford Motor Company Ltd (U.K.) from 1920 to ...

engines with

Tilling-Stevens Tilling-Stevens was a British manufacturer of buses and other commercial vehicles, based in Maidstone, Kent. Originally established in 1897, it became a specialist in petrol-electric vehicles. It continued as an independent manufacturer until ...

generators and motors. The original locomotive of this type was named ''Duke of Edinburgh'' with ''Prince Charles'' following in 1954 and ''Golden Jubilee'' in 1963. ''Golden Jubilee'', although of the same basic design of the other two lost the A4 styling, being replaced by a box-shaped body and a loss of the steam outline wheels, the wheel arrangement being modified to configuration. All three of these Barlow locos still exist on the railway, their Fordson tractor petrol engines having been replaced by more modern economical diesels. In 1971 another loco joined the fleet, a

Severn Lamb Severn Lamb, sometimes known as Severn-Lamb, are manufacturers of various forms of transport systems and equipment, principally aimed at the leisure market. They are based at Alcester in the England, English county of Warwickshire, but sell thei ...

product built to look like a

Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

Diesel, its wheel configuration is Co-Co with

diesel-hydraulic A diesel locomotive is a type of railway locomotive in which the prime mover is a diesel engine. Several types of diesel locomotives have been developed, differing mainly in the means by which mechanical power is conveyed to the driving wheels ...

drive. A little known loco which ran on the line was No. 14, a small shunter with

Mechanical transmission Propulsion transmission is the mode of transmitting and controlling propulsion power of a machine. The term ''transmission'' properly refers to the whole drivetrain, including clutch, gearbox, prop shaft (for rear-wheel drive vehicles), differ ...

. It was built for the line by Gordon Walker in 1985 using a 1000cc

Austin Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the seat and largest city of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties. Incorporated on December 27, 1839, it is the 11th-most-populous city ...

engine and a Hudson coach

bogie A bogie ( ) (in some senses called a truck in North American English) is a chassis or framework that carries a wheelset, attached to a vehicle—a modular subassembly of wheels and axles. Bogies take various forms in various modes of transp ...

. No 14 was designed for permanent way work though it could in fact haul 6 of the line's articulated coaches. It was not successful, mainly because of the crude belt drive. It was moved in 1990, being acquired by Austin Moss of the

Windmill Farm Railway Burscough () is a town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in West Lancashire in the ceremonial county of Lancashire, England. It is located to the north of Ormskirk and northwest of Skelmersdale. The parish also includes the hamlet of ...

. In 2005 a new locomotive was commissioned for the railway. it was delivered in 2006. ''Jenny'' is a steam-outline locomotive built at Windmill Farm. It is a sit-in locomotive with an overall cab for the driver and is of

tank engine A tank locomotive or tank engine is a steam locomotive that carries its water in one or more on-board water tanks, instead of a more traditional tender. Most tank engines also have bunkers (or fuel tanks) to hold fuel; in a tender-tank locomot ...

appearance. In 2011 the Railway celebrated is 100-year centenary as the longest continually running railway. (Just behind the oldest, which is Rhyl, This was closed though during the wars) In 2015 The railway changed ownership and became part of Pleasureland Southport. In 2018 The railway was renamed "Pleasureland Miniature Railway". This was the third name change in its history.

Locomotives currently owned by the railway

Locomotives previously owned by the railway

Services

The railway operates during weekends and school holidays from Easter to October. Trains do not run to a timetable, but shuttle back and forth, generally from 11am to 5pm/6pk, though bad weather can lead to cancellation or early closure. Services recommenced after the winter season on 26 March 2022.

References

Sources

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