Welcome to the Compton Down Railway. It is a garden railway in progress: the last great push is on towards its final format. 2009 will see the 60th anniversary of the first CDR and the 30th of the railway in this location. It is a nice target to aim for. With much of it looking like a building site, I can offer only a few glimpses of the railway. But hopefully they will convey something of the atmosphere that I seek to create.

Let’s have a few hard facts. The garden is a secure area some 70’x40’ The main part of the layout consists of not-quite-a-circle some 240’ round: the two termini are within a few feet of each other. The ‘main railway’ is SM32 and has a long branch that climbs back on itself to reach a small mine. The route is also being duplicated in SM45 but there is still some track-laying to go on this. There is a very substantial branch from this that serves a steelworks. In addition there are a variety of little sub-railways of unusual gauges and types, to satisfy my somewhat experimental leanings.

It is customary to offer lists of engines and rolling stock. But in Compton World things are somewhat variable. There are usually around 50 locos up on the shelves, of which perhaps 8 will be live steam. My interest is in a complete railway and so the engines are, to me, merely a part of a bigger picture. Because most of the railway is up at waist level, manually operated engines are easy to drive and there is only a small amount of radio control. Some automatic working is employed. The oldest surviving Compton Down loco dates back to 1953 – a battery powered Ffestiniog saddle tank, which was originally mostly in cardboard but repairs since have used metal parts.

So, for now, I invite you to have a browse at some snapshots of the Compton Down Railway. As work progresses in the next 18 months I shall be able to offer a more definitive guide to this little empire.

March 2007