EXCLUSIVE
By Robin Jones
TYSELEY Locomotive Works will be celebrating 50 years since its first open day on September 29-30 – and among the many star attractions will be two traction items from Birmingham’s legendary Sutton Miniature Railway.
The 15in gauge line in Sutton Park was adored by tens of thousands of children for nearly six decades until it was closed and torn up in 1962.
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Black Country businessman Bill Hunt, whose family owned and operated the railway, were told to rip up the line after the former Sutton Coldfield Borough Council controversially reclaimed the lease on the fairground through which the railway ran.
The Sutton collection was stored in Oldbury in the Black Country until 2000 when a £299,000 grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund allowed the stock to be acquired by the Cleethorpes Coast Light Railway, as reported in issue 33.
Returning to action
Tyseley has negotiated the loan of 4-4-2 No.2 Sutton Flyer and the SMR’s GWR railcar for the event. Tyseley’s workshop staff are aiming to get the railcar working and run in with other visitors, former Fairbourne Railway flagship Bassett Lowke Class 30 Atlantic Count Louis, and three closed SMR carriages on 350 yards of demonstration track. The Sutton stock will therefore appear in the West Midlands for the first time in 56 years.
Read more in Issue 245 of HR – on sale now!
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