The Sand Hutton Miniature Railway was a miniature gauge

estate railway There were more than a thousand British narrow-gauge railways ranging from large, historically significant common carriers to small, short-lived industrial railways. Many notable events in British railway history happened on narrow-gauge railw ...

serving the estate of Sir Robert Walker, the Fourth Baronet of Sand Hutton,

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ) is an area of Northern England which was History of Yorkshire, historically a county. Despite no longer being used for administration, Yorkshire retains a strong regional identity. The county was named after its county town, the ...

, England.

History

Walker began experimenting with a 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, ...

in 1910. In 1912 he decided to build a miniature railway of that gauge in the grounds of

Sand Hutton Sand Hutton is a village and civil parish which forms the larger part of the Claxton and Sand Hutton grouped parish council, in North Yorkshire, England, about north-east of York. History The village is mentioned in the ''Domesday Book'' as ...

hall. By the end of the year, 350 yards of track had been laid and the locomotive ''Synolda'' had been acquired. By the end of 1913 the railway had been extended to , and was extended again by in 1914. At the outbreak of the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

in 1914, the railway went into hiatus. Most of the local men joined the war effort and the Hall and grounds largely closed. After the war, Walker returned to the Hall and re-opened it. He planned to extend the miniature railway to connect with the nearby North Eastern Railway station at

Warthill Warthill is a village and civil parish in North Yorkshire, England, six miles north-east of York and 14 miles south-west of Malton. The village has one public house, ''The Agar Arms'', and a Church of England primary school (established in 1 ...

, a total distance of . This longer line was intended to serve as the main transportation system for the estate. A

Light Railway Order The Light Railways Act 1896 ( 59 & 60 Vict. c. 48) was an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. History Before the act each new railway line built in the country required a specific act of Parliament to ...

was applied for and granted, in January 1920. Work on the extension started in May 1920 with the trackbed being constructed near Warthill station. By the end of the year the trackbed was complete as far as Sand Hutton, and work was underway on the long branch to the brickworks at Claxton. However much of the new line was steeply graded and it became obvious that a miniature locomotive like Synolda would not be capable of working the new line efficiently. Walker began searching for a more powerful solution to his transportation needs. In December 1920 the Government announced the sale of the equipment from the gauge railway at the Deptford Meat Depot. This included track and rolling stock of a much more substantial nature. Walker purchased most of the Deptford equipment and set about converting the miniature railway into the Sand Hutton Light Railway. By 1922 the last remains of the miniature railway were gone and the remaining rolling stock was up for sale.

Rolling stock

The railway used four 4-wheel open carriages built by Basset-Lowke, each seating up to eight passengers. Walker also had two vehicles built at Sand Hutton: a closed bogie salon carriage and a 4-wheel closed brake van. The salon carriage survived the line and passed to the

Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway The Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway is a minimum-gauge railway, minimum-gauge heritage railway in Cumbria, England. The line runs from Ravenglass to Dalegarth for Boot railway station, Dalegarth Station near Boot, Cumbria, Boot in the valley o ...

References

{{coord, 54.015, -0.937, type:landmark_region:GB-NYK, display=title Miniature railways in the United Kingdom Railway lines opened in 1912 Closed railway lines in Yorkshire and the Humber 15 in gauge railways in England 1912 establishments in England