Mizens Railway is a 7¼ inch gauge

miniature railway A ridable miniature railway (US: riding railroad or grand scale railroad) is a large scale, usually ground-level railway that hauls passengers using locomotives that are often models of full-sized railway locomotives (powered by diesel or petrol ...

located in a 10-acre site near

Woking Woking ( ) is a town and borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in northwest Surrey, England, around from central London. It appears in Domesday Book as ''Wochinges'' and its name probably derives from that of a Anglo-Saxon settlement o ...

in Surrey,

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. The railway comprises three routes, the longest being nearly 1 mile long. A variety of locomotives are in use, including several steam engines. The railway was named after its original location at Mizens Farm, now the headquarters of

McLaren McLaren Racing Limited is a British motor racing team based at the McLaren Technology Centre in Woking, Surrey, England. McLaren is best known as a Formula One constructor, the second oldest active team, and the second most successful Formul ...

until moving to the present site in 2000.

Routes

Three routes are operated by the railway on public running days, The Suburban, the Miler and the Highlander. A maximum of two of these routes can be operated at one time for the public. The Highlander saw its testing in mid-2014 with limited passenger runs. Technical difficulties prohibited opening in 2014 with final testing occurring in early 2015 before the start of the running season. Due to the demanding gradients of this route, it is only opened to the public in dry conditions and depending on the availability of locomotives and coaching stock. Trains on this route start and end their journey at platform 3.

Signalling

The railway is controlled by a variety of

signal In signal processing, a signal is a function that conveys information about a phenomenon. Any quantity that can vary over space or time can be used as a signal to share messages between observers. The ''IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing'' ...

s. Many signals on the main line are controlled automatically but most signals around the

train station A train station, railway station, railroad station or depot is a railway facility where trains stop to load or unload passengers, freight or both. It generally consists of at least one platform, one track and a station building providing suc ...

are controlled from the south

signal box In signal processing, a signal is a function that conveys information about a phenomenon. Any quantity that can vary over space or time can be used as a signal to share messages between observers. The ''IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing'' ...

. The north signal box is being installed to control the new 'Highland' route. Construction of the north signal box and its signals are nearing completion and is hoped to be in service in the 2015 train running season. Both signal boxes are controlled with 20 half-size levers and a variety of buttons to operate shunt signals. Basic electronic interlocking is in use where appropriate. All of the automatic signals on the track are 2 or 3 aspect color light signals which operate using track circuit equipment. Many of the signals in the station are of a LMS semaphore type, and are built near to scale.

Standard gauge and larger narrow gauge rolling stock

The site contains several larger items of railway rolling stock on static display. The largest of these is the

British Rail Class 423 The British Rail Class 423 ( 4 VEP), electric multiple unit passenger trains were mostly built by British Rail (BR) at York Works from 1967 to 1974, although the MBSOs and TSOs of the first 20, 7701-7720, were built at Derby Works. They have ...

(also known as 4-VEP) driving trailer unit number 76887 from unit 3568. A platform and protective roof have been constructed over the coach to protect it from the rain. At the gate of the site a

South African Class A 4-8-2T The South African Railways Class A 4-8-2T of 1888 was a steam locomotive from the pre-Union era in the Colony of Natal. In 1888, the Natal Government Railways placed the first five of its eventual one hundred Class D steam locomotives in servi ...

tank stands on a short section of track. The locomotive moved to the Woking site in 2011 by ship from Richard Bay in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

to Bristol Portbury Docks, and then by road transport to Woking.

Miniature locomotives

Mizens railway has a variety of

locomotives A locomotive or engine is a rail transport vehicle that provides the motive power for a train. If a locomotive is capable of carrying a payload, it is usually rather referred to as a multiple unit, motor coach, railcar or power car; the u ...

to drive the trains. These are powered by a variety of

steam Steam is a substance containing water in the gas phase, and sometimes also an aerosol of liquid water droplets, or air. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization ...

petrol Gasoline (; ) or petrol (; ) (see ) is a transparent, petroleum-derived flammable liquid that is used primarily as a fuel in most spark-ignited internal combustion engines (also known as petrol engines). It consists mostly of organic co ...

and battery

electric Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter that has a property of electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described by ...

power and can be seen on the front of the trains. On some days locomotives visit the railway, this mainly happens on the special event "The visiting locos day". The railway owns one locomotive, Bourne Again, a large sit-in petrol locomotive. Most of the other Locomotives are owned by members of the Railway and are also used on a regular basis.

Steam

The resident steam locomotives range from narrow gauge style to scale bodied. Facilities to run the steam locomotives such as water and coal can be seen on the station.

Diesel and electric

A large number of resident locos at Mizens are powered by diesel engines and electric motors. On most running days there are more diesel and electric locos in operation.

Running locomotives

References

External links

Railway website
{{coord, 51.32633, N, 0.61310, W, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title Miniature railways in the United Kingdom 7¼ in gauge railways in England Woking Tourist attractions in Surrey