The Perrygrove Railway - an introduction by Michael Crofts.

The railway was built by me and my wife Frances with the help of many others and is operated by an enthusiastic team. It was built to satisfy a personal ambition but it has been designed to appeal to the public - particularly families with young children and those who like narrow gauge railways. Without the support of those who come to see us and ride on the little trains we could not afford to keep the railway going.

In 1990 we started looking for a place to build a railway. We wanted a site where we could get planning permission to open to the public. It had to be in an area which appealed to us and the freehold had to be available at a price we could afford. We drove thousands of miles across England from Northumbria to the Dorset coast in pursuit of wild geese let loose by estate agents. At last, in May 1993, we found Perrygrove. It was the remains of a farm which had been whittled away by road widening and housing development until there was just 22 acres left. The whole place was in a dreadful state. Every fence was rotten and every building was in disrepair – one of them blew down shortly after we arrived. But it was the best we could afford, so we bought it.

In 1994 we obtained planning permission. In 1995 I replaced my full-time job with a part-time post in the same profession, and we cut the first sod at Easter. The railway opened to the public 16 months later on 1 August 1996.

The line starts at Perrygrove station. A branch runs south to the farmyard and workshops, and the main line runs north. It begins with a long straight followed by a drop down to the Rookwood loop and a climb up to Rookwood station. Here we plan to install a passing loop and sidings to provide facilities for this miniature estate. Next stop is the halt at Heywood, followed by a climb of 1:30 through the wood and under a footbridge. The line emerges on a bluff giving views over the works and then moves out into the fields where some of our livestock can often be seen. Finally it climbs another 1:30 gradient to Oakiron, 3/4 mile from Perrygrove. We hope to extend a further 1/4 mile in the future.

Our rails are second hand from 4 sources - a waterworks, 2 ammunition dumps, and the local Park Hill drift mine. The track was laid by a team who were led first by Jeremy Martin (who was only 19 at the time) and later by Doug Phelps.

We operate the railway about 80 days each year, plus Christmas. When we are running steam trains we need four staff:- a driver and guard on the train and two people in the main station with its booking office, café and shop. We have a few volunteers but most of the people who operate the railway are doing it as a job. For many of them it is their first job, providing valuable experience of dealing with the public.

It is more by chance than design that we have ended up recruiting young people. They often stay with us until they leave to go to full-time work or university. Some of them continue to come back during university vacations. Guards have to be a minimum age of 14 when they start training and can qualify at 16. Drivers have to be at least 18. The ideal arrangement on the railway side is for someone to join as a volunteer at 14 or 15, become a guard at 16, and then start driving at 18. By then they have absorbed enough of the railwayman’s basic knowledge to be capable of taking control of a train carrying over 70 people on a challenging route. We are still looking forward to having our first female driver, and I am sure she will turn up one day.

We have found that those who come to the railway with experience of driving full-size locomotives frequently find it very difficult to cope with having to be both driver and fireman. Not all of them have managed to get up the hills!

We try to present an air of calm efficiency to the public when we are operating. Life behind the scenes is sometimes not quite so relaxed.

We are conscious that the project is unfinished. Every time we walk out of our back door we are faced by incomplete works and a long list of “things that need doing”. Sometimes the prospect of the work lying ahead is daunting, but a glance at the photograph album reminds us that even tasks which seem impossible are eventually accomplished, and as each year goes by a little more gets done. It is also very encouraging when regular visitors remark on the improvements we have made since they last came here.