Great Willowgarth Railway - YGRS 2020

The Great Willowgarth Railway is being built in a large garden to one side of the Willowgarth, a water-filled medieval moated site (with island) in South Yorkshire. The railway is built to 16mm scale, 32mm gauge.

Construction work started in 2006 and the railway has developed progressively since then. The latest project has been to build a 12” to the foot scale station building (aka “the shed”) to use on railway open days and to store all the open day paraphernalia. It’s ironic that this has been completed just as COVID has put paid to open days; ah well, there’s always next year.

Currently, the railway occupies a space just over 60m long by 15m wide. There is a lot of track, 5 station/steam-up areas and 4 bridges. A full circuit can take between 7 and 10 minutes, depending on the speed of the train and the number of other trains also running on the line.

After 14 and a half year’s work, the railway is probably more than half-finished. One day, I hope to build a branch line up to the top of the embankment and along one side of the moat. It should be very photogenic and could double the time needed for a full circuit. Once I’m fully retired, maybe building the rest of the railway will move forward a little quicker.

This video is part of the Virtual Yorkshire Garden Railway Show 2020: https://ygrs.16mm.org.uk/

00:00 - Introduction
1:03 - A Garden with History
5:29 - Lady Hannah Jane
8:03 - Onboard Tour Part 1
11:44 - Features of the Line Part 1
21:24 - Line Tour Part 2
25:43 - Open Days