Beeches Light Railway

Track

The nearly 1 mile (1.6 km) railway track with a gauge of 2 ft (610 mm) was built between 2002 and 2004. It resembles a figure of eight, with a loop around the back garden and another around the front, where it crosses the main drive. Ringkingpong Station, an Indian style railway station and sheds are behind the house. These follow an Indian theme from a fare evasion signs citing Indian Rupees, to the station's name, the Rinkingpong Road and some of the decoration used inside the building. Although the railway is private, and not subject to rail regulations, it is run professionally by Shooter and some volunteers with railway rulebooks and regulations, and the steam engine has to be certified each year.

Steam locomotive

The rolling stock has a history that can be traced back well over a hundred years, as one of its locomotives was built in 1889. This Class 'B' steam locomotive 778, the Sharp Stewart 3518, No 19 was originally sold to India’s Darjeeling Himalayan Railway between New Jalpaiguri and Siliguri, which was inaugurated in 1878. It was used there until 1960 or according to other sources 1962, and was then sold to a railway enthusiast in the USA, Elliot Donnelley, who was the boss and major shareholder in RR Donnelley Co, which is a very large printer and publisher in Chicago. After he died in 1975 it was passed to the Hesston Steam Museum, where it stayed until it was bought by Adrian Shooter in 2002 and restored to use again. Two original carriages, and two modern replicas of the carriages used on the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway are occasionally used to transport invited guests. Carriages to accompany the locomotive were commissioned from Boston Lodge works.

Draisine

Shooter owns also a replica Ford Model-T motorcar that he runs on the railtracks. It is based on a modified car used by the USA railway to inspect tracks on the Sandy River and Rangeley Lakes Railroad. The replica was commissioned from the Statfold Barn Railway. It includes a jacking system that will lift the wheels free of the rails and allow it to be rotated on its axis in order to go the other way round.

Additional rolling stock

Stored in the railway shed is some rolling stock from the London Mail Rail, an underground goods railway line, which was used to transport letters and parcels between sorting depots before it was mothballed.