Beeches Light Railway

(driver, right) with Jeremy Davey (fireman, left) onboard locomotive No.19 at Beeches in 2019. In 2019, Shooter announced that the Beeches Light Railway would close at the end of the year. It was planned to move the railway to a new, larger location, reopening in spring 2020. the railway remained in situ, but was dismantled in the months following, after Adrian Shooter's death. The house, including the station building and sheds were put up for sale in 2023. == Track ==

The nearly railway track with a gauge of was built between 2002 and 2004. It resembled a figure of eight, with a loop around the back garden and another around the front, where it crossed the main drive. An Indian-style railway station and sheds were behind the house. The theme of an Indian railway was present throughout, including the name of the station ("Ringkingpong Road Station"), fare evasion signs citing Indian rupees, and some interior decorations as well. Although the railway was private, and not subject to rail regulations, it was run professionally by Shooter and experienced volunteers with railway rulebooks and regulations, and the steam engine had to be certified each year. == Rolling stock ==

Steam locomotive The railway's primary motive power, a DHR B Class No. 778, was built by Sharp, Stewart & Company in 1888, works number 3518. 778 was built for India's Darjeeling Himalayan Railway. where it ran until either 1960 or 1962, when it was sold to Elliot Donnelley, a railway enthusiast in the US, who was the major shareholder in RR Donnelley Co, a large printer and publisher in Chicago. After Donnelley died in 1975 the locomotive passed to the Hesston Steam Museum, These carriages were commissioned from Boston Lodge works, to accompany the locomotive. Draisine Shooter owned also a replica Ford Model-T motorcar that he ran on the tracks. It is based on a modified car used by the USA railway to inspect tracks 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 there was 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. List of former rolling stock ==Closure==

, after Adrian Shooter's death, the of track, plus rolling stock from the railway were auctioned for sale in June 2023. The winning bid for 778 was by The Darjeeling Tank Locomotive Trust, which had managed to buy both 778 and the two replica coaches, relocating the rolling stock to a new base at Statfold Country Park. == References ==