Commercial 7 1/4" gauge freight operations!

Our Roundhouse Park miniature railway is almost the smallest size gauge used for giving rides to passengers. Our gauge is 7 1/2". With few exceptions, commercial and tourist railways are usually at least 2 foot gauge or more. But here is one of the exceptions documented on the Internet as follows:

“There is a 7 1/4" gauge railway in Shrewsbury, very close to the old Abbey station off Abbey Foregate in the U.K. The track is still in situ (probably not worth the bother of lifting it!) but the line is no longer used. The track is 7 1/4" gauge and was used to move freight around the yard. Whilst it appears to be on a public road it probably isn't, it's more like a paved back alleyway. I haven't been able to find out when the line closed, but I would imagine 10 to 20 years ago. There were two locos used, a diesel outline and a steam loco. Both were miniature versions of full size locos. It appears the chief product handled was sugar. The line went into one or two buildings. Length was in the region of 300-400 metres going by the map (below). It's likely that the track in the buildings has been lifted. The line had several unusual if not unique features. It seems to have been used for freight only, it ran mainly on-street and is still there!"

The above information and the images below are to be found by clicking here.  At that website, you will also  find other interesting articles. They also have an quite active Facebook group called: Rail Things - Rails in the Road"  

Posting by Russ Milland