Dark, K. Rhyl Miniature Railway.
Archive, 2011 (72)
2-8.
Built under the auspices of Miniature Railways of Great Britain Ltd
founded by W.J. Bassett-Lowke
and Henry Greenly. Sold the line
to Rhyl Amusements in 1912 owned Isaac Butler who engaged Albert Barnes to
develop the amusements at Marine Lake and set up Albion Works to maufacture
fairground equipment. Six locomotives of the Albion class were built between
1920 and 1930 for the line: they were named after Samuel Butler's children:
WN 101 Joan; WN 102 Michael; WN 103 John; Michael
was sold and replaced by WN 105/1925. WN 104 was named Billie, but
was sold and replaced with WN 106 Billy. Trust House Forte closed
the site in 1970 and the equipment was used at Manchester Zoo until 1977.
Alan Keef reopened the Rhyl line in 1978, but the line is now run by the
Rhyl Steam Presevation Trust
See also letter from Robin D. Butterell in
Locomotive Mag., 1944,
50, 80
Birley, John Leyland
Died 11 March 1906, aged 49. Owned a 20-inch gauge locommotive with
a Willans' compound vertical engine driving through gears and a rectangular
verical multitubular boiler. The locomotive ran in the grounds of Millbanke,
a property owned by Birley at Kirkham in Lancashire (Uniique narrow gauge
locomotive. Locomotive Mag.,
1903, 9, 149). He was educated at Uppingham public school, and
at Queen's College, Oxford, where he was a good average scholar, and distinctly
above the average as an athlete, winning several valuable cups for long distance
running. In the 20 acres of grounds at Millbanke, he built a miniature railway,
half-a-mile long, with an engine and two coaches. There was a miniature lake,
with a model steam launch on it, and a little windmill to pump water into
his lake, all of which he made himself. The grounds comprised a small golf
links, and half-a-dozen tennis courts (one of concrete), and the meetings
of the Fylde Tennis Club when held at Milbanke were greatly looked forward
to. Two steam launches which used to be on Lytham beach named Lorna
Doone and Stephanie,were docked near the Shipyard, were his
productions. Reaminder off Internet
Bullock, H.C.S.
10¼ gauge Pacific with origins in The Great Bear, but
with only two cylinders. Locomotive
Mag., 1934, 40, 164 (Bullock was the Author of this article),
Also Ghosts of Romney Marsh (Howey of RHDR commissioed Bullock to design
a Pacific based on the Stanier Princess Royal type which was beyond Bullock's
resources and led to his suicide in Rlys
South East,1987, 1, 41 and
Bullock (H.C.S. Bullock: his life and locomotives by Kenneth Allan Bullock; compiled and edited by Bob Bullock. Dorchester: A to B Books, 2017. 128 pp.)
