Mizens Railway is a 7¼ inch gauge

miniature railway A ridable miniature railway (US: riding railroad or grand scale railroad) is a large scale, usually ground-level railway that hauls passengers using locomotives that are often models of full-sized railway locomotives (powered by Diesel engine, ...

located in a 10-acre site near

Woking Woking ( ) is a town and borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in north-west Surrey, England, around from central London. It appears in Domesday Book as ''Wochinges'', and its name probably derives from that of a Anglo-Saxon settleme ...

in Surrey,

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. The railway comprises three routes, the longest being nearly 1 mile long. A variety of locomotives are in use, including several steam engines. The railway was named after its original location at Mizens Farm, now the headquarters of

McLaren McLaren Racing Limited ( ) is a British auto racing, motor racing team based at the McLaren Technology Centre in Woking, Surrey, England. The team is a subsidiary of the McLaren Group, which owns a majority of the team. McLaren is best known a ...

until moving to the present site in 2000.

Routes

Three routes are operated by the railway on public running days, The Suburban, the Miler and the Highlander. A maximum of two of these routes can be operated at one time for the public. The Highlander saw its testing in mid-2014 with limited passenger runs. Technical difficulties prohibited opening in 2014 with final testing occurring in early 2015 before the start of the running season. Due to the demanding gradients of this route, it is only opened to the public in dry conditions and depending on the availability of locomotives and coaching stock. Trains on this route start and end their journey at platform 3.

Signalling

The railway is controlled by a variety of

signal A signal is both the process and the result of transmission of data over some media accomplished by embedding some variation. Signals are important in multiple subject fields including signal processing, information theory and biology. In ...

s. Many signals on the main line are controlled automatically but most signals around the

train station A train station, railroad station, or railway station is a railway facility where trains stop to load or unload passengers, freight, or both. It generally consists of at least one platform, one track, and a station building providing suc ...

are controlled from the south

signal box A signal is both the process and the result of transmission of data over some media accomplished by embedding some variation. Signals are important in multiple subject fields including signal processing, information theory and biology. In ...

. The north signal box is being installed to control the new 'Highland' route. Construction of the north signal box and its signals are nearing completion and is hoped to be in service in the 2015 train running season. Both signal boxes are controlled with 20 half-size levers and a variety of buttons to operate shunt signals. Basic electronic interlocking is in use where appropriate. All of the automatic signals on the track are 2 or 3 aspect color light signals which operate using track circuit equipment. Many of the signals in the station are of a LMS semaphore type, and are built near to scale.

Standard gauge and larger narrow gauge rolling stock

The site contains several larger items of railway rolling stock on static display. The largest of these is the

British Rail Class 423 The British Rail Class 423 ( 4 VEP), electric multiple unit passenger trains were mostly built by British Rail (BR) at York Works from 1967 to 1974, although the MBSOs and TSOs of the first 20, 7701-7720, were built at Derby Works. They have ...

(also known as 4-VEP) driving trailer unit number 76887 from unit 3568. A platform and protective roof have been constructed over the coach to protect it from the rain. At the gate of the site a South African Class A 4-8-2T tank stands on a short section of track. The locomotive moved to the Woking site in 2011 by ship from Richard Bay in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

to Bristol Portbury Docks, and then by road transport to Woking.

Miniature locomotives

Mizens railway has a variety of

locomotives A locomotive is a rail vehicle that provides the motive power for a train. Traditionally, locomotives pulled trains from the front. However, push–pull operation has become common, and in the pursuit for longer and heavier freight train ...

to drive the trains. These are powered by a variety of

steam Steam is water vapor, often mixed with air or an aerosol of liquid water droplets. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization. Saturated or superheated steam is inv ...

petrol Gasoline (North American English) or petrol ( Commonwealth English) is a petrochemical product characterized as a transparent, yellowish, and flammable liquid normally used as a fuel for spark-ignited internal combustion engines. When formul ...

and battery

electric Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter possessing an electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described by Maxwel ...

power and can be seen on the front of the trains. Most locomotives are owned by members of the Railway and are also used on a regular basis.

References

External links

Railway website
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