Dave Walker, 54, and his wife Angela, 55, built the 400m track by hand over seven years
The track runs the entire length of their garden and across their driveway(Image: SWNS)
A train-mad couple say their house is now either unsellable or worth triple after building a miniature railway in their garden. Dave Walker, 54, and his wife Angela, 55, finally finished the 400m railway last summer after seven years’ of building work.
The couple, from Clacton in Essex, had flattened their quarter-of-an-acre garden to make way for a marquee for their wedding reception in August 2017.
While toying with the idea of laying some track for a small garden railway, Dave and Angela decided bigger was better. Putting a pin in plans to update their 1980s kitchen, the Walker’s began construction on the 1,312ft-long miniature railway.
Get MEN Premium now for just £1 HERE – or get involved in our WhatsApp group by clicking HERE. And don’t miss out on our brilliant selection of newsletters HERE.
The five-figure project boasts five engines with four lines, a tunnel and the track which runs the entire length of their garden and across their driveway.
Dave, who works in the wedding and events entertainment industry, said: “Our house is either now unsellable or worth triple. Most people think we’re mental. They must think: ‘Are they living the dream or are they mad?’.
“Our kitchen is from 1988 and you don’t go to your deathbed thinking, ‘God, I loved my kitchen’. You go thinking about how you built that railway in your garden and how fantastic it was, all those summers with a fruit cider in hand, driving a train around.”
Dad-of-two Dave received his first train set from his grandfather when he was five-years-old and loved the railways ever since. Two rooms of his and Angela’s detached home are dedicated to a model railway and their garden full of memorabilia dating back decades.
The pair married on August bank holiday in 2017, hosting their wedding reception in their garden which they cleared to make room for a marquee.
Dave, who is also a DJ, said: “We started to have an idea of a garden railway where you can run miniature steam locomotives which come along and brings you a bottle of beer.
“But I said to Angela I wanted the next thing up, one that carried real, full sized people. At the beginning of 2018, I said it was basically a toss up between that new kitchen she wanted and a miniature railway. Angela said we’ve already got a kitchen so I said I’ll go and get my spade.”
Building began in the June, 2018 and the first line was completed in September – 50m-long in a oval shape. The five-inch gauge railway now has four lines with five locomotives, all working on car batteries at 24vlts, thanks to Ride On Railways in Romford.
Built by the couple from hand, the garden also has a wooden workshop, a metal shop built to look like a signal shop and an engine shed.
Dave, who is a keen gardener alongside Angela, explained: “We wanted a garden first, then have the railway running through. Our track is made of rail and the sleepers, with the rail mostly second-hand.
“Our sleepers are roofing batten soaked in preservative and the track sits on top of red granite chippings. If we had to move from here, the track could be lifted and someone would be left with some very expensive garden path.”
The railway also has a tunnel, three stations in the back garden with one dubbed ‘Walker’s Wedding’, and the track even runs through the fence panel through to the front of the home.
The couple plan to build a river beneath the track, moving closer to completing their wish-list of having a bridge. The garden is also home to a full-sized steam engine chimney which was cast in 1928 – and decorations such as frogs, gnomes and dinosaurs.
Angela, who used to work in a primary school, said: “No miniature railway will ever be finished. There’s still be to tweak. Our friends and neighbours think we’re mad.
“But when you walk in the from the side entrance and the garden reveals itself, that is a magical moment. We didn’t want a railway with a few plants here and there, we wanted to garden to be stunning in its own right.
“But I still haven’t got my new kitchen. I’ve jazzed ours up with stickers over boring beige tiles. There was an advert for Wickes on the TV showing a really old 1980s kitchen with the doors hanging off – that still is my kitchen. The doors aren’t quite hanging off.”
Dave said they hoped to attract other rail enthusiasts and open the garden on a ticketed-basis to raise money for charity. He added: “I lost track of how much money we’ve spent years ago but it would be at the top end of five figures.
“It’s so much fun. We’ve had delivery drivers in to drive trains around the garden, including some who brought us a double bed. An hour later they were still here – just in the garden on the trains. The locomotives require oiling and cleaning but it’s not any different to maintaining a petrol lawnmower.”
As for advice Dave would give to anyone wanting to build their own miniature railway, he said: “Without any doubt at all, have a very understanding partner.”
