Blenheim Park Railway is a 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 petro ...

operating in the grounds of

Blenheim Palace Blenheim Palace (pronounced ) is a country house in Woodstock, Oxfordshire, England. It is the seat of the Dukes of Marlborough and the only non- royal, non-episcopal country house in England to hold the title of palace. The palace, ...

, in

Oxfordshire Oxfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the north west of South East England. It is a mainly rural county, with its largest settlement being the city of Oxford. The county is a centre of research and development, primaril ...

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 ...

History

A portable track for a very small gauge railway was run from 1955, but in 1960 a permanent oval track was built to the south-west of the Palace, with a short spur to engine sheds. This ran until 1987 and was then dismantled and rebuilt at Cutteslowe Park north of Oxford, where it still runs a regular service. In 1975 a larger gauge linear track was installed nearby, running return trips from what was then the Garden Centre and Butterfly House to the Palace. The new railway opened as a tourist attraction within 'The Pleasure Gardens', an area of visitor facilities inside the grounds of the Palace, but some distance from the house itself. Miniature railway operating company 'Pleasurerail' operated the service on a short out-and-back line. There were no

passing loop A passing loop (UK usage) or passing siding (North America) (also called a crossing loop, crossing place, refuge loop or, colloquially, a hole) is a place on a single line railway or tramway, often located at or near a station, where trains or ...

s or run-round loops, so the line was push-pull operated. The original locomotive was named ''Sir Winston Churchill'' (not to be confused with the current locomotive of the same name), and was later joined by locomotives ''Muffin'' and ''Tracy-Jo''.

Later Development

The facilities at The Pleasure Gardens include a maze, a plant centre, a cafeteria, the popular butterfly house, and the main car park for visitors. The railway was adapted to provide an actual transport facility between the Pleasure Gardens and Blenheim Palace itself, and during the tourist season trains run in each direction every half-hour. The line is now an end-to-end operation laid out roughly in the shape of a figure '7', and extending over a distance of . There are run-round loops at each terminal station, and there was a central passing loop allowing the operation of two trains. This loop has now had one set of points removed, thus changing it into a siding. The line also has a three-road engine and stock storage shed.

2013/14 Replacement

Over the winter of 2013/14 the original passenger carriages were replaced with new carriages constructed by Alan Keef Engineering. A new engine named simply ''Winston'' also entered service, replacing the locomotive ''Anna'' which was sold. A 31 m (100 ft) tunnel was added which also serves as a storage shed for the new carriages, and as a result of this investment a small charge was introduced to cover the costs.

Rolling stock

Passenger carriages

The three original passenger carriages were 16-seat semi-open vehicles, painted dark green, with canvas canopy type roofs originally made in Germany in the 1930s. In 1994 a fourth matching coach was built by Alan Keef. These vehicles remained in service until 2014, when they were sold.

References

{{coord, 51.8389, -1.3505, region:GB, display=title Miniature railways in the United Kingdom 15 in gauge railways in England