Very early British miniature railway -- any additional information?

[Calthrop]

A recent discovery of mine -- happened on by chance, in pursuit of something totally else. To wit, the Ardkinglas Railway -- per the rather meagre relevant information findable via Wiki, possibly the first miniature railway in Britain: predating Sir Arthur Heywood's earliest doings, by several years.

This short line was situated in what is now Argyll and Bute: at the head of Loch Fyne, on the baronial Ardkinglas estate -- obviously, isolated far from any other railway "then or later". Gauge 12 inches: constructed and brought into operation circa 1866. Combining available data from a couple of Wiki sources: the line ran along the shore of the loch "from a boathouse at Caspian". It is stated that line was inaugurated "as a transport system for the estate and as a garden toy for the estate's 17th laird". Its capacity for such roles is called into question by other Wiki statements of its having been -- by implication -- just one single lochside route, of a length of (accounts vary) something between 500 yards, and not quite a mile. I quote: "A single steam locomotive operated the line; rolling stock consisted of a two-seat open passenger carriage and several wagons."

The above is corroborated by a quote from the Oban Times telling of a brief visit by Queen Victoria in 1875, to the venue: "... the model railway, nearly a mile in length along the shore of Loch Fyne. Over this miniature line a pygmy engine draws a handsome carriage capable of accommodating two persons. At intervals stations have been erected and the line is worked on the most approved principles, these being on a small scale all the requisites of a large railway system." In a one-engine-in-steam situation? -- ah, well, non-railway-familiar folk, and journalists...

It would seem that the railway's life was for sure, short -- by most indications, twenty-odd years at most. Seemingly, those most concerned lost interest, due to various causes; plus, a suggestion that the line was badly damaged by the far-ranging storm which caused the 1879 Tay Bridge disaster. "Pointers" indicate that the line was dismantled in the 1880s: its not featuring on the maps resulting from the 1897 Second Edition of the Ordnance Survey, is seen as proof that it had been obliterated by 1897; but -- various findings elsewhere, suggest that the OS is not omniscient ...

Per a rather enigmatic Wiki entry: the boiler of the locomotive was still in situ until the early 1950s, on the beach at Tayvallich on Loch Sween (thirty-plus miles south-west of Ardkinglas -- "why, and how?") Nothing in what I can find, to give any details concerning the loco -- builder, or anything else.

Would be most interested in anything additional that anyone can submit, re this railway -- I reckon self fairly obsessive about narrow gauge in the British Isles, but was totally oblivious of the "Ardkinglas" until a couple of weeks ago.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Would be most interested in anything additional that anyone can submit, re this railway -- I reckon self fairly obsessive about narrow gauge in the British Isles, but was totally oblivious of the "Ardkinglas" until a couple of weeks ago.

A little further info here...

The Garden Railway | Ardkinglas Estate

The Ardkinglas Railway was a miniature railway which ran for approximately 500 yards along the shore of Loch Fyne. It was constructed in 1866 at the instigation of George F W Callander of Craigforth and Ardkinglas, at the time a seventeen year old pupil at Eton College.

www.ardkinglas.com

...which you've no doubt seen already.

Brief extract below...

No illustrations or detailed description of the tiny railway are known, but its location is shown on the 25” Ordnance Survey plan of 1870. The Oban Times of 9 October 1875 records a brief visit to Ardkinglas by Queen Victoria and comments on the “model railway nearly a mile in length along the shore of Loch Fyne.

Can't see anything still extant on this later end 19th century OS map of the area... (See link below).

Side by side georeferenced maps viewer - Map images - National Library of Scotland

 

[Gloster]

I presume you have looked at the 25” map for 1870/1871 which marks it as a ‘model railway’. It is not clear but I presume that it runs almost to Alltan Fichead Sgilline (apologies if that is not the name of the rivulet). I think that Caspian was the name of the ornamental lake.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Can't seem to find the 1870 era 25" to the mile OS map on the online NLS resource. Would have been useful!

 

[Gloster]

Can't seem to find the 1870 era 25" to the mile OS map on the online NLS resource. Would have been useful!

I found it under Maps Home > Ordnance Survey > 25 inch > Scotland, 1855-1882

Map Series Ordnance Survey, Scotland, 25 inch to the mile, 1st edition - 1855-1882

Search Ardkinglas

 

[Calthrop]

A little further info here...

The Garden Railway | Ardkinglas Estate

The Ardkinglas Railway was a miniature railway which ran for approximately 500 yards along the shore of Loch Fyne. It was constructed in 1866 at the instigation of George F W Callander of Craigforth and Ardkinglas, at the time a seventeen year old pupil at Eton College.

www.ardkinglas.com

...which you've no doubt seen already.

Brief extract below...



Can't see anything still extant on this later end 19th century OS map of the area... (See link below).

Side by side georeferenced maps viewer - Map images - National Library of Scotland

I saw Wiki info, re involvement of the youthful Etonian genius George F.W. Callander in 1866 -- didn't want in my OP, to get too wordy: indications in Wiki stuff, that as of the mid-1870s, GFWC was showing signs of mental illness: corresponding decline for his railway ...

(Fantasy prompts scenarios of GFWC going back to Eton Sep. '66 and being greeted by chums, "Hi, Georgie ! What have you been up to in the summer vac?" -- "Pull the other leg" would, one feels, have been the least of it.)

I presume you have looked at the 25” map for 1870/1871 which marks it as a ‘model railway’. It is not clear but I presume that it runs almost to Alltan Fichead Sgilline (apologies if that is not the name of the rivulet). I think that Caspian was the name of the ornamental lake.

Your erudition here, is I'm afraid way out of the competence-zone of computer-moron me ...

 

[Gloster]

Your erudition here, is I'm afraid way out of the competence-zone of computer-moron me ...

That is the first time anybody has ever said that I know more about computers than them. Normally they look at me in disbelief when I say that not only do I not know how to traggle a splunger, I don’t know what a splunger is or what traggling is. The comment about Caspian is based on a photo.

 

[Calthrop]

Sploifling the gwurps springes the gobberwards of the smurbles, except on Thworbsday ...

 

[Mcr Warrior]

I found it under Maps Home > Ordnance Survey > 25 inch > Scotland, 1855-1882

Map Series Ordnance Survey, Scotland, 25 inch to the mile, 1st edition - 1855-1882

Search Ardkinglas

Thanks. This is the map presumably...

View map: Ordnance Survey, Argyllshire and Buteshire CXXXIV.1 (Kilmorich) - Ordnance Survey 25 inch 1st edition, Scotland, 1855-1882

States "Model railway" to the NNW of Ardkinglas House and was presumably constructed on or alongside the shoreside path/track.

 

[stuu]

I was intrigued by this, so had a bit of a search. On another forum, someone has posted the following:

THE ARDKINGLAS MINIATURE RAILWAY



​

Sources



The fullest account, naturally, appears on the website of the Ardkinglas Estate itself; a summary can be found in Wikipedia.

Printed accounts appear in Mosley and Van Zeller, Fifteen Inch Gauge Railways (pp. 4,5) and in Clayton,, Butterell and Jacot, Miniature Railways – volume 1 (pp. 6,7). The Heywood Society Journal contains an article by Michael Oliver (no.15, pp. 7,8) and letters by Michael Oliver and Rodney Weaver (no. 16, p.15; no.24, p.18; no.41, p.25 and no.42, p.23). An article by A. J. Mullay appears in Blastpipe (no.71, 1986). Dr Macartney’s rediscovery of the locomotive boiler was reported in Scottish Field (vol. 52, p.7).

Documentary sources are relatively few: the 1st. edition 1/2500 O.S. map of the Loch Fyne area, surveyed in 1870 and published in 1874, marks part of the course of the “model railway” on the loch shore but may not indicate its full extent. The only contemporary verbal description, in the Oban Times of 9 October 1875, was a by-product of a visit to the Inverary area by Queen Victoria; unfortunately no photographs of the visit exist in the Royal Archives. The line had a brief mention in an obituary of George William Callandar in the Dunoon Herald of 1 December1916, the source of which is not known. Recently, Mrs Jean Maskell at the Ardkinglas Estate Office has stated that a surviving pair of wheels has come to hand, settling the vexed question of gauge at 12 inches.

Building of the Railway

Construction seems to have begun in 1866 at the instigation of George Frederick William Callander of Arkinglas House, whose father had died in 1851 when he was just two years old. He was an exact contemporary of Arthur Heywood of Dove Leys [1849 – 1916] and in 1866 both were 17-year old pupils at Eton College. As is well known, Heywood had already constructed a passenger-carrying 9” gauge railway at Dove Leys, using hand and pedal power, which he famously remarked was stable enough ‘provided persons [his younger siblings] did not attempt to ride on the sides and ends of the carriages’. Unlike Heywood, who went on to study Applied Science at Cambridge, Callander returned to his home and began to construct a private railway along the shore of Loch Fyne.

This lochside section, perhaps 500 yards long, ran from a point near Ardkinglas House northwards past a belt of trees sheltering the artificial lake shaped to resemble the ‘Caspian Sea’; at the northernmost point of the lake it apparently swung to the south east, but it is unclear how far it continued in this direction. At the northernmost point was a small building of inverted ‘L’ shape, serving as a depot. The lochside track was set on piles, presumably the easiest way to get a level trackbed, and this feature doubtless made it sufficiently prominent to feature on the O.S. map. Building was carried out by a local joiner and a mason, the costs being entered in the Estate accounts. Possibly, economy of timber in the piling and transoms pointed towards the use of a gauge as narrow as 12”: Arthur Heywood’s musings on the ‘minimum gauge’ of 15” were still some years in the future.

The Railway in Use

The purpose of the line seems to have been entirely for pleasure, linking the house to the ‘Caspian Sea’ where Callander had models of the Cunard steamers and of battleships (complete with working cannons!) and a passenger-carrying steam boat (with an oscillating paddle engine) and a yacht. The Oban Times described the railway itself as “nearly a mile in length”:

“Over this miniature line, a pygmy engine draws a handsome carriage capable of accommodating two persons. At intervals, stations have been erected and the line is worked on the most approved principles, these being on a small scale all the requisites of a large railway system. The above carriage was designed and built by a native of Montrose, Mr Charles Thompson, coachbuilder, Glasgow”.

Callandar’s obituary in 1916 described the line as being constructed on piles for about a mile, with “a powerful little locomotive, with engine house, points, signals, railway station all complete”. The gauge was stated to have been 18”, a statement hard to reconcile with the surviving artefact. Might one surmise that the obituary writer - or his informant - being unfamiliar with technical matters, took a measurement between the remains of the timber piles? It is difficult to reconcile the varying accounts of the railway’s length, but it seemingly continued further down the east shore of the ‘Caspian Sea’ to the steam boat pier. Anecdotal evidence given to the young Alan Macartney in 1912 stated that the approach to the ‘Caspian Sea’ included a tunnel, but this does not seem to be visible on the O.S. map.

Another point of interest appears from the written descriptions. By 1875, the railway seemed to have acquired stations, signals etc which are not marked on the O.S. map; though the map was careful to record estate buildings, the ice house and well. If it is possible that the stations etc appeared just before 1875, then we have an exact parallel with the building of the first part of Heywood’s Duffield Bank Experimental Railway.

The Railway Dismantled

It appears that Callandar developed mental illness towards the end of the 1870s, and the railway is said to have suffered damage in the gale of December 29th, 1879, which destroyed the first Tay Bridge. Dismantling may have begun in the 1880s, and seems to have been complete before 1897, when the revisers of the 1/2500 O.S. map found no surface features; Callandar’s affairs were by then in the hands of a Trustee and the estate was shortly afterwards purchased by the Noble family, who rebuilt Ardkinglas House in 1906.

At some point it appears that the locomotive and the steam boat were purchased by the village blacksmith at Tayvallich in North Knapford, about 30 miles south-west of Ardkinglas on the shore of Loch Sween. The locomotive, at least, seems to have been left fairly intact until 1912, when the young Alan Macartney (on holiday with his parents) saw and recalled it as an 0-4-0 with a tall chimney and horizontal boiler cladding; there was also some track and rolling stock. Revisiting the site in 1951, Dr Macartney (as he had then become) was surprised to find the boiler still there; the dimensions were approximately three feet long by one foot diameter.

The dimensions of the boiler do suggest a very small gauge machine, and the link to Ardkinglas is at least probable. But narrow gauge railways had been used at several places to move construction materials for ‘Baronial’ style houses from the loch shores to the building sites. In February 1898, for example, a mile of 2’ 0” gauge track was advertised for sale at Portachoillean Ferry, Clachan – but this has since turned out to have had no connection whatsoever with Callander and Ardkinglas, having been used for the erection of Balinakill House.

The Heywood Connection

If the parallels between Ardkinglas and Duffield Bank seem too close to be accidental, it has to be said that the links between the Callandars and the Heywoods are tenuous, apart from the playing fields of Eton in the early 1860s. However, the Heywoods were certainly familiar with the Loch Fyne area: one of their Manchester properties was named ‘Glenfyne’ and Glenfyne Road in Salford is still there today, along with Duffield, Doveleys and Alresford Roads! It was been discovered that in 1891/2, and other years to 1895, Sir Thomas Heywood rented the Loch Fyne shooting while a gentleman from Derby took Ardkinglas House itself.

The Far Sawrey Railway
Before too firm a conclusion is drawn, it should be remembered that there is also an interesting parallel with the 300-yards pleasure line built by Charles Fildes about 1860 on a shelf above the edge of Lake Windermere. A Manchester merchant, Fildes owned the first private steam yacht on Windermere and his railway locomotive LAVINIA was said to have been “de-mountable” so that it could be used to propel another lake vessel in the summer months. The illustration facing the contents page in Mosley and Van Zeller shows an inside framed 2-2-2 saddle tank with substantially ‘over-scale’ wheels and wooden framed tender. No definite connection has yet been found between Charles Fildes and either Arthur Heywood or George Callandar, and it has been plausibly suggested that both locomotive and steam boat at Windermere may have been the work of Isaac Watt Boulton of Ashton-under-Lyne, who had relevant experience of small steam machinery for road, water and rail operation. LAVINIA indeed had a visual resemblance to small engines which Boulton had built to service coking ovens at Grimsby in 1856 and 1860. But again, there is no known connection between Boulton and either Heywood or Callander and so the builder of the Ardkinglas locomotive remains a mystery; perhaps an amusing sideline by engineers in one of the Glasgow marine engineering workshops, to go with the coachbuilder’s ‘pygmy’ carriage?

 

[randyrippley]

Have you found this document?

JARS v60n4 - The Gardens of Ardkinglas Estate: An Historical Perspective, Part II

George and his brother Henry were both somewhat eccentric, but were very proficient amateur engineers and in 1866 they supervised the construction of a miniature railway. The Model Railway trackbed is shown on the 1st edition of the 25-inch scale Ordnance Survey map, published 1870, commencing on the Rhubba Mor peninsula, then running past the Caspian Lake, the parkland and terminating at a pier about 400 yards south of the Estate Offices. The Oban Times of 9th October 1875 comments: 12
...model railway nearly a mile in length along the shore of Loch Fyne. Over this miniature line a pygmy engine draws a handsome carriage capable of accommodating two persons. At intervals stations have been erected and the line is worked on the most approved principles, these being on a small scale all the requisites of a large railway system.
In the Dunoon Herald of 1st December 1916 a historical note describes the miniature railway: 12 ...constructed on piles for about a mile along the shore of Loch Fyne. It had a gauge of 18". There was a powerful little locomotive, with engine house, points, signals, railway station all complete.
Model railway engineering, in terms of hand-held small-gauge locomotives and track, dates from 1838, but large-scale miniature garden railways did not come into vogue until the early-1900s. So, the work of the Callander brothers is historically significant and their miniature garden railway is one of the first, if not the first, to be constructed in Britain. By any standards, a track gauge of 18 inches is very large, particularly if compared with the Ravenglass & Eskdale Railway, or the Romney, Hythe & Dymchurch Railway; both are well-known tourist attractions and are engineered on the smaller 15-inch gauge.
From the Estate records it is known that the railway was built in 1866, mainly by William Wallace, a joiner from Cairndow village; whilst the stonework, as required, was carried out by Adam Linton, a mason from Cairndow. The steam engine was probably a simple four-wheeled tank locomotive and it is likely to have been assembled away from Ardkinglas due to the engineering complexities involved, probably at one of the Glasgow or Newcastle workshops.
At this date George Callander would have been 18 years old and it has been suggested that George may well have come under the influence of Arthur Heywood whilst they were both at Eton College. Sir Arthur Heywood, of Duffield Bank, to the north of Derby, became famous for the promotion of 15-inch gauge passenger and freight-carrying miniature railways on country house estates. However, Sir Arthur did not commence his stability experiments on 15-inch gauge equipment at Duffield Bank until 1874, some eight years after the line at Ardkinglas was constructed, and it is more likely that he was influenced by the work of George Callander.
According to oral tradition, the railway line and its structures at Ardkinglas were severely damaged on the night of 28th December 1879 by the hurricane that brought about the infamous collapse of the railway viaduct across the Firth of Tay; but by this date George Callander was showing signs of severe mental illness. The remnants are said to have been dismantled in the 1880s; but, sadly, by the early-1890s George Callander was confined to a psychiatric hospital and his railway had gone. However, the engineering expertise of the two brothers extended far beyond miniature railways; they built a fleet of enormous galleons in the style of Nelson's Victory, armed each galleon with miniature cannons that actually fired, and sailed these in battle on the Caspian "sea."
Remnants of these warships and cannons still exist in Ardkinglas House. It is likely that the boathouse and pier at the north end of the Caspian were constructed in the 1860s to enable the warships to be "rescued." Unfortunately, genius in a particular field of endeavour can often extract too high a price at a personal level, and so it appeared to be with the Callander brothers, neither of whom left heirs.

this from 2011 passes doubt on the gauge

Miniature Railway World Forums-Ardkinglas Miniature Railway

George Callender's railway at Ardkinglas on the shore of Loch Fyne was probably the earliest to be depicted as a 'Miniature Railway' on the 1870 large

www.tapatalk.com

but information recently received from Mrs Jean Maskell at the Ardkinglas Estate Office reveals that there is a surviving pair of wheels indicating a 12" gauge. Allowing for a bit of side play, Ardkinglas might actually be the first known 12.25" gauge line! Other accounts have given the gauge as 18" (Callender's obituary, no source given) or even 24" (since disproved). The recent evidence fits well with the contemporary description that the "pygmy carriage" held only two people, i.e. only one abreast.

does anyone have access to this journal?
Mullay, A J. (1986b) 'The lost railway of Ardkinglas: Britain's first miniature line?', Blastpipe, vol. 71, Spring 1986

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Model railway engineering, in terms of hand-held small-gauge locomotives and track, dates from 1838, but large-scale miniature garden railways did not come into vogue until the early-1900s. So, the work of the Callander brothers is historically significant and their miniature garden railway is one of the first, if not the first, to be constructed in Britain. By any standards, a track gauge of 18 inches is very large, particularly if compared with the Ravenglass & Eskdale Railway, or the Romney, Hythe & Dymchurch Railway; both are well-known tourist attractions and are engineered on the smaller 15-inch gauge.

Interesting that the above-quoted article compares and contrasts the gauge of the 1860's/1870's era Ardkinglas "model railway" with that on the Ravenglass & Eskdale, however, when the latter line was opened in 1875, it did, of course, originally operate with a 3 foot gauge and didn't convert to 15" gauge until WW1.

And the Romney and Hythe's 15" gauge line didn't open until 1927.

 

[Calthrop]

Ongoing thanks to all. @stuu -- quoted article, absolutely fascinating: filled in a number of blanks for me. More specifics than previously got, about the loco -- that it was an 0-4-0T; and explanation of how it ended up at Tayvallich after the railway's demise. And, interesting to learn that Callander, and the better-known-in-the-"fancy" Arthur Heywood, were contemporaries at Eton. @randyrippley -- article which you quote, also full of interest; including about this whole -- most intriguing -- venue, over and above; and before the time of; the railway. Including, illumination re the originally cited "boathouse at Caspian": name from the artificial lake in the shape of the Caspian Sea. This lake created, we learn, in the last years of the 18th century: putting paid to my vague notion of the name being perhaps somehow inspired by the Crimean War -- the whole thing pre-dates that conflict, by a long way !

 

[randyrippley]

I realised as I was reading that article that I've actually been there, twenty or so years ago.
Absolutely spectacular rhododendron collection, and some of the trees in the pinetum are real giants - easily the biggest I've seen in the UK

 

[Calthrop]

I realised as I was reading that article that I've actually been there, twenty or so years ago.
Absolutely spectacular rhododendron collection, and some of the trees in the pinetum are real giants - easily the biggest I've seen in the UK

I don't "do" bucket lists; but if I did, I'd be adding this location ! Sounds like an enchanting spot.