Progress on building the miniature railway has already been made
A man has started a project to build a miniature railway in a Cambridgeshire town to offer families more things to do. Robert Schofield, the chairman of the Godmanchester Miniature Railway, has been running portable railways in the county over the last two years to help raise money for schools and food banks.
Mr Schofield had been looking for a permanent home for the railway and had come into contact with the Godmanchester Community Plant Nursery after covering for a last minute cancellation. The miniature railway came back to the plant nursery for other events and decided it would be a good place to build the new project.
Godmanchester used to have a railway line in the past and the area is home to many railway fans making the project popular with residents. Mr Schofield said: “I think people are looking for more places to take children. The Godmanchester Plant Nursery is a beautiful site and it’s the perfect pairing of nature and railway. The whole thing kind of completes itself and adds a lot of things to do for children and adults alike.
“People can go to the café, enjoy train rides, and walk around the beautiful site. A lot of people came to me and said ‘we need more things to do in the area. We’re all rail fans and we’ve got young children that want to get involved in projects like this’.”
The miniature railway has already received a lot of attention from residents and on social media. Mr Schofield said: “On Apple Day on October 11, we took our biggest number of passengers. It was around 460 passengers on a single day on a short running session. So it was very popular. At this point, I spend a lot of my time answering emails and comments through the Facebook page so it has been really good.
“We’ve had a lot of support for our funding as well. People have been very generous donating and it has helped us progress a lot quicker.”
People in the area can get involved by becoming a volunteer on the project and are welcome to visit the site to learn more about railways and how they operate. The Godmanchester Miniature Railway is completely funding itself and wants to support other community projects in the future.
Mr Schofield hopes to open as much of the track in time for Easter with a lot of progress already being made. He said: “We’ve dug the initial foundations for the home straight of the main platform area. We’ve dug out the point work and at the moment, we’re just getting all the materials. We’re going to start our upgrades and induct a lot of new volunteers from the local area.
“We’re going to get building as much as we can up to Easter. It is going to start with a reduced service, as the railway is still under construction. We’re doing everything we can to get as much down as possible and try to give everyone a good time. As time goes on, we’ll still be running but the railway with get longer and the experience will change each time.”
The miniature railway is set to expand over the years with the track continuing to get longer. Mr Schofield added: “The current project already has 140 metres worth of track and yards and all sorts for freight demonstrations. So we’ve already got quite a bit on our plate but I guess nothing is impossible in the future.”
The Godmanchester Miniature Railway will be found at the Godmanchester Community Plant Nursery. The plant nursery is on Park Lane.
