The Stanworth Heath Light Railway
Background
An old habit from indoor modelling days is to come up with a fake history for your model railway, which justifies its existence in the real world. There doesn't seem to be any need to do this with a Garden Railway, as pretty much anything goes. You can do what you like and no-one will bat an eyelid. But hey, old habits die hard so here's a brief fake background on the railway.
Stanworth Heath is (to quote the National Trust guides) "an area of outstanding natural beauty", situated somewhere in the UK. The area is a very popular tourist attraction, particularly with Hikers and Cyclists. The area boasts it's own small narrow gauge steam railway, which generates a surprising amount of revenue from the many tourists who visit, and a constant stream of railway enthusiasts who come simply to ride the rails.
The Reality
The Stanworth Heath Light Railway is a large scale model railway situated in
a modest back garden in Madeley Shropshire.
Stanworth, is my wife's maiden name and I thought that it
had a nice ring to it, hence chose to use Stanworth as my fictional location
for the railway. Why Stanworth Heath? I just liked the look of
the initials SHLR, and so the Stanworth Health Light Railway was born.
The railway "opened" in spring 2002.
The majority of the stock and equipment is G-scale based around products
by LGB, Bachmann and Aristocraft. At present the majority of
the line's locomotive stock is track powered, with one live steamer on the
roster.