Hidden treasures of the Fawley Hill Railway

FOR railway enthusiasts visiting the Fawley Hill home of the late Sir William McAlpine, some of the most striking exhibits in his extraordinary collection line the trackside of the garden railway that grew to be the centrepiece of life on the estate.

When in 1965 Bill bought the last remaining steam engine owned by the construction company founded by his great-grandfather, there was only a short stretch of track for it to stand on.

All that was to change over the next few years with the laying of tracks along the valley floor linking to a new “Hill line” with a remarkable 1 in 13 gradient up to a station area where a platform was being built.

The station buildings comprise a waiting room and offices from Somersham station, which stood on the St Ives to March line in Cambridgeshire and was once part of the Great Eastern Railway network.

Somersham became a junction in 1889 with the opening of a new line to Ramsey and it’s thought the buildings at Fawley date from that period, the station having closed to passengers in 1967 and fallen into disrepair.

In 1977 the buildings were carefully taken to pieces for painstaking rebuilding and restoration at Fawley Hill, although sharp-eyed visitors will notice adornments from Clapham Junction, Cardiff Riverside and Liverpool Street stations.

The tunnel at the end of the short platforms was constructed in the 1960s as an engine shed and now acts as a store for rolling stock after a purpose-built shed was completed in the yard.

Everywhere you look there’s a sign or other artefact to grab your eye.

We’re waiting for our train to arrive, and today it’s a guest engine on temporary loan from the Foxfield Railway in Staffordshire, a little tank engine owned and lovingly restored by Jack Dibnah, son of the celebrity steeplejack and TV personality Fred Dibnah.

It’s a temporary replacement for Fawley Hill’s resident Hudswell Clarke 0-6-0 saddle tank, No 31, the first steam engine to arrive here back in 1965, which is currently undergoing a major overhaul.

Built in 1926 by Kerr, Stuart & Co to shunt coal wagons for a gas works at Etruria in Stoke-on-Trent, the tiny visiting saddletank no 4388 was sold on to a local foundry and when rail traffic ceased there in 1962 lay in a corner of the yard for 20 years before being sold to the Foxfield Railway.

It was restored to steam and ran until 1999, when it needed a full overhaul. Bought in 2020 by Jack Dibnah, the engine feels very much at home at Fawley Hill, alternating or pairing up on trips with the resident BR Class 03 diesel shunter no D2120.

The 0-6-0 diesel-mechanical shunter is one of 230 built at Swindon and Doncaster between 1957 and 1962. Entering service in 1959, it spent its working life in the Swansea area of South Wales before being withdrawn in 1986.

It arrived at Fawley Hill wearing the standard BR rail blue livery and its new 1974 number 03120 but has since been repainted in early BR green with its original number and loco shedplate of 87C (Danygraig), the depot where it entered service.

Even before you leave Somersham station for the short trip downhill, there’s a lot to take in.

Isn’t that the old station sign from High Wycombe station harking back to the days before the link to Marlow closed to passengers in 1970? And behind it the little crossing box which once stood at Cheshunt station?

Volunteers starting out as guides here for the Fawley Museum Society have a lot of facts to get their heads around. The footbridge we are passing under comes from Brading on the Isle of Wight; on one side is a weighing machine from Ashford Works in Kent, and there’s even a “wig-wag” crossing sign from the Sante Fe railroad in America.

In the station yard stands the first building to come to the Fawley railway: a 1905 Midland Railway signalbox originally erected at Swadlincote East outside Burton-on-Trent but later moved to the sidings controlled by the brewers Bass, Ratcliff & Gretton at Shobnall Maltings.

Bass expanded its malting and ales stores in the 1870s and the eight miles of private track needed a signalbox to control train movements. The Swadlincote box was moved there in 1955 and remained until the line closed in 1968, arriving at Fawley the following summer.

And so the journey continues: on to Broad Street, Blackfriars and Waterloo, down the hill towards tiny buildings gathered from the length and breadth of the country, from a Newton Abbot lamp hut to part of Invergordon North signalbox, north of Inverness.

Even on this trip, we’re only scratching the surface of a collection that’s vast in its scale and intriguing in its scope: from wagons and coaches to models and maps, paintings and horse brasses.

Sir William’s lifelong love of railways and his construction industry connections allowed him to spent more than half a century amassing his extraordinary private museum, rescuing artefacts, buildings, preserved railways and locomotives along the way.

When he was alive, he would often be found walking his dogs around the estate discussing new acquisitions with the volunteers.

You get the feeling he would be delighted to see those volunteers out in force today, and so many smiling faces still getting so much pleasure from his legacy.

The museum and railway are open on a limited number of days during the year and admission is only by prior application and invitation. See the museum’s events page for details.