When I was a very young child my family lived in Belper, and among the very faint memories I have of that time is a green steam locomotive operating along a stretch of track in a park in Matlock. What little I have been able to find online says that the track is still there, but since 1974 has been operated by a freelance (and frankly plug-ugly) diesel locomotive and the track is a most unusual 9 1/2" gauge.
1974 is the year my family moved to York (I was 3 years old at the time), and all memories of this railway cease from this point. I can't even find any photos of the steam loco online. The closest I can get is a B&W shot from 1951 of something that someone thinks might be a sister locomotive from another railway in a different park in the area that closed before I was born.
Does anyone have any information on this line, and particularly the locomotive, dating from before 1974? Cheers.
1974 is the year my family moved to York (I was 3 years old at the time), and all memories of this railway cease from this point. I can't even find any photos of the steam loco online. The closest I can get is a B&W shot from 1951 of something that someone thinks might be a sister locomotive from another railway in a different park in the area that closed before I was born.
Does anyone have any information on this line, and particularly the locomotive, dating from before 1974? Cheers.