Barchester Towers Railway

Welcome! BTR is a 7 1/4 inch gauge miniature railway built through some typical bush on the Central Coast of NSW, Australia. Like the Festiniog Railway in North Wales it is built on a continuous grade to allow for full trains to gravitate to civilization while empty trains get back to the workings by muscle power. The grade, however, is about 1 in 30 which is closer to the NSW main line over the Blue Mountains than to anything in Britain.

Our scrapbook - whatever comes to hand:
  • click here for 2010 (Still in draft - new bridge, Tsubasa, Steve, Francis, antechynus, gecko, more lantana etc.)
  • here for 2009 (Sayaka, catbird, gecko, Peter and Marcos, Jerome and Maddy, Easter party, Miyako and Natsuki, macrozamia)
  • here for 2008 (Lantana, Patricia's friends, Yoo Jin, Kaoru, visit to Narara, spiders, Yuki and Benjemin, etc.)
  • here for 2007 (Track extension, Bensim, Juinichi and other wildlife, pump shed, electric engine, visit to Penwood,bridge repairs)
  • here for 2006 (Quota women, track through the long cutting at last, etc.).
Other, older, pages follow: (If you are new to this site then we suggest that you start at the bottom of this list.)
  • November 2005 - A new engine! Click here.
  • June 2004 - Minor improvements, and having fun. Click here.
  • November 2001 - digging a cutting for an extension. Click here.
  • The January 1999 pictures continue here (Bridge repair, CCSM outing etc).
  • Assorted still photos are here. (How we started, visiting engine etc.)
  • Our original home page (1997-2005) with history, moving images etc. is here.

E-mail for more information about this project. The Barchester Towers Railway is not open to the public, however owners of 7 1/4" trains are welcome to visit, provided that they understand the limitations of the line, and that they alone, and not the owners or builders of the railway, are responsible for any misadventure to their person or property while visiting.

For information on miniature railways and model engineering on the Central Coast ... There is an established club, CCSM at Narara, just north of Gosford, NSW. 5" and 7 1/4" ... public run first Saturday of the month ... between Showground Road (north end) and Narara Creek. Meetings, last Thursday of each month in the meeting room beside the club carriage at the same place. There is also a new (2009) group that is hoping to set up a railway at the old Pioneer Dairy site near Wyong. Meanwhile they are also setting up a private track nearby.

For more information on the bush and its preservation we recommend the National Parks Association of NSW. For pictures of a new 7 1/4" railway in New England, USA, try this site. To learn more about this hobby see Ron Stewart's site, it's the definitive site for those with computers and small engines. For background on the original long distance gravity railway, see the Festiniog Railway history pages.

This site is: http://btr.cjb.net or, without the ads: http://dazed.org/btr.

Footnote:
We are sometimes asked Why "Barchester Towers"? Barchester Towers by Anthony Trollope was one of our grandfather's favorite books in English, which was not his first language. It appealed to his cynical view of human relations and to his enjoyment of humour as a defence against pomposity. So in the early 50's when he bought a small bush cottage as a weekend reteat from Kings Cross, the choice of the name "Barchester Towers" was obvious. It is just a coincidence that Trollope himself visited Broken Bay and the Hawkesbury and was equally impressed by the natural grandeur of the wooded hillsides. If you want a change from trains or the bush, you can read Barchester Towers on your computer.
Sean has resumed private practice. He is specialising in Sydney criminal and traffic defence matters, please see dazed.org/publicdefencepractice.

This line last edited: 2 February 2010.