A 7+1⁄4-inch gauge railway is a miniature railway that uses the gauge of 7+1⁄4 in (184 mm). It is mainly used in clubs, amusement parks and as a backyard railway.
Locomotives include steam, electric and diesel types. Most are built to an individual design but some are built from kits.
7+1⁄4 in (184 mm) Gauge railways are owned by clubs or can be privately owned.
The Lappa Valley Railway is a 15 in minimum gauge railway located near Newquay in Cornwall. The railway functions as a tourist attraction, running from Benny Halt to East Wheal Rose, where there is a leisure area with two miniature railways.
Bressingham Steam & Gardens is a steam museum and gardens located at Bressingham, west of Diss in Norfolk, England. The site has several narrow gauge rail lines and a number of types of steam engines and vehicles in its collection and is also the home of a Dad's Army exhibition.
Live steam is steam under pressure, obtained by heating water in a boiler. The steam may be used to operate stationary or moving equipment.
A backyard railroad is a privately owned, outdoor railroad, most often in miniature, but large enough for one or several persons to ride on. The rail gauge can be anything from 2+1⁄2 in to 7+1⁄2 in or more. Smaller backyard or outdoor railroads that cannot be ridden are called garden railroads. Some backyard railroads use full-size rolling stock, such as the former 3 ft narrow gauge Grizzly Flats Railroad owned by railfan and Disney animator Ward Kimball.
Minimum-gauge railways have a gauge of most commonly 15 in, 400 mm, 16 in, 18 in, 19 in, 500 mm or 20 in. The notion of minimum-gauge railways was originally developed by estate railways and the French company of Decauville for light railways, trench railways, mining, and farming applications.
The Moors Valley Railway is a 7+1⁄4 in narrow gauge passenger railway, in the Moors Valley Country Park at Ashley Heath, Dorset, England near Ringwood in Hampshire. There are 20 steam engines and 2 diesel engines. The railway is fully signalled, with two signal boxes, one in a Great Western Railway style and one in a British Rail Southern Region style. The latter box also contains a mini lever frame and push button panel, for the control of the Lakeside area. The railway was constructed at its present location in 1985/86 and opened to the public in July 1986, after the closure in 1985 of its predecessor at Tucktonia in nearby Christchurch, which had run since 1979.
The Conwy Valley Railway Museum is located at Betws-y-Coed railway station, Betws-y-Coed, North Wales, on the site of the old railway goods yard.
Saltwood Miniature Railway was a 7+1⁄4 in gauge miniature railway which first opened in Sheffield, but subsequently relocated to Saltwood in Kent, England. It closed in 1987.
The Downs Light Railway is the world's oldest private miniature railway, with a track gauge of 9+1⁄2 in. The railway is located within the grounds of The Downs Malvern, a private school in Colwall, near the town of Malvern, Worcestershire in the English Midlands. It is owned by the Downs Light Railway Trust.
There have been two railways within the state territories of the Bailiwick of Guernsey, a British Crown Dependency comprising six inhabited islands.
Purbeck Miniature Railway was a 7+1⁄4 in gauge miniature railway, located at The Purbeck School near Wareham, Dorset, England. Construction started in the late 1980s in co-operation with the Weymouth & District Society of Model Engineers and has closed due to building works on The Purbeck School.
The Coalyard Miniature Railway, opened in 1988, and relaid in 1990 as a 7+1⁄4 in gauge railway, operates in the grounds of the Severn Valley Railway’s Kidderminster Town Station.
Yeo was one of three narrow gauge 2-6-2T steam locomotives built by Manning Wardle in 1898 for the Lynton and Barnstaple Railway. The other two locomotives were named Exe and Taw. Yeo, like all the locomotives on the L&B, was named after a local river with a three-letter name, in this case the River Yeo.
The Fancott Miniature Railway (FMR) is a 7+1⁄4 in gauge railway located in the gardens of the Fancott public house in Fancott, Bedfordshire, England. The track is laid in an oval with a triangular junction giving access to the station and with a separate steaming bay inside the oval. There is also a short line off towards a container used as a carriage shed, and a tunnel which contains a short siding for the railway's wagons. The FMR is part of Britain's Great Little Railways.
Thorne Memorial Park Miniature Railway is a 7+1⁄4 in gauge and 5 in gauge miniature railway built in 1998 in Thorne, South Yorkshire, England, operating on two loops within the park.
The Ness Islands Railway is a 7+1⁄4 in gauge miniature railway in Inverness, Scotland, opened in 1983.
The Hastings Miniature Railway is a 10+1⁄4 in gauge miniature railway located on the seafront at Hastings, a seaside resort, town, and ancient cinque port, in East Sussex, England. Opened in 1948, it remains a popular tourist attraction. The line was re-opened in the summer of 2011 after a period of reconstruction and restoration, which coincided with a forced closure of the eastern part of the line, to facilitate building work on a new art gallery adjacent to the railway.
David C. Curwen was an English miniature railway steam locomotive mechanical engineer.
The Abbeydale miniature railway is a railway run by the Sheffield & District Society of Model & Experimental Engineers Ltd. in Ecclesall Woods in south-west Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The railway has two sections: a dual gauge ground level section with gauges of 7+1⁄4 inches (180 mm) and 5 inches (130 mm). There is also a smaller multigauge raised section that has gauges of 3+1⁄2 inches (89 mm), 5 inches (130 mm) and 7+1⁄4 inches (180 mm).
Wythall miniature railway is a dual-gauge miniature railway in the grounds of The Transport Museum, Wythall in England. It is operated and maintained by Elmdon Model Engineering Society (EMES)
