IN THE BEGINNING

I stumbled into the world of garden railways by pure chance in the late 1980’s when our newly moved in neighbours had, in amongst the packing cases, a collection of LGB stock and track. Over the coming months the track was eventually carefully unpacked and laid around their small pond. I was always welcome to hop over the fence and become a part of the permanent way team and help run the trains.

 Time moved on and three years later sadly so did we, to another house, but we remain great friends.

 It was now 1990 and our eldest daughter was three. To celebrate her birthday we invited friends and family over for a barbeque. Andy and Carol were of course on the guest list. He brought with him on the day a small circle of LGB set track and one of his now battery powered LGB diesel locos and a set of wagons. We set this up in the garden and it proved to be a great hit with kids and adults alike.

At the end of the day, all our well fed guests went home but the track was left behind. Gradually the plants over took it and I thought the time was overdue to lift and return it.To my surprise, the ever generous Andy told me to keep hold of it.

His philosophy was and still is, that ‘ever home should have a garden railway’

 So began my adventure into the world of garden railways.

The Russet Tor Light Railway has been to date been a twenty year adventure that thankfully shows no signs of coming to an end any time soon.