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Hi Bamber, There was a miniture railway near Edwinstowe I think,

I have some photo's of it taken in 1959-ish. I will look them up.

It was a ride-on gauge on the lines of the outfit that used to be next to the City Hospital.

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Hi Bamber, There was a miniture railway near Edwinstowe I think,

I have some photo's of it taken in 1959-ish. I will look them up.

It was a ride-on gauge on the lines of the outfit that used to be next to the City Hospital.

Sounds like it. It isn't the Sherwood Forest Railway as I'm talking about the early 1970s. I seem to remember it running through a wooded area that was close to the main road.

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Yep, I used to go on it when I visited my Grandma in Bestwood in the seventies as a kid....it used to be over the road from the High School playing fields. It's been gone for yonks now.

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It's been discussed here before, but I can't find the thread. It used to fascinate me and I was jealous of the kids who got a ride on them. My dad worked just across the road from it. Looking at Google Earth from a few years ago, you can just about see the outline of where the track used to be. (This is the Valley Road one, which we seem to have drifted onto - not the one which started the thread!)

rail-1.jpg

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If memory serves the AA box was close to the Ollerton island on the 614.

As to the Valley Rd site I never saw one near the 5 ways, but there was one at the junction of Hucknall Rd and Valley Rd. Behind the concrete mini police station that was. I still have it marked on my maps.

On days that it was in steam children could go for rides free of charge.

Colin

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I have been giving this one some thought.

From the early 70s onward I spent a lot of time at Proteus training camp and all over the surrounding area.

If memory serves the AA box was on the right hand side of the Worksop Rd just above the roundabout. There was a greasy spoon style cafe there to with tables and chairs outside. I have this vague memory of sitting there in the summer drinking tea, smelling steam and listening to a train whistle.

That is unless I am going barmy, I will ask next time I meet an old comrade.

Colin

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There was also one on Valley Road, near to City Hospital or Fiveways Pub, anyone remember it ?

I remember the one at the Hucknall Road junction and remember clearly seeing it being used twice...once with just a lone guy chuffing round the track and once with a few kids on board.

Five Ways Park was my stomping ground from '57, there was no track on there then...if there was at an earlier date I stand corrected...but then, two tracks a few hundred yards apart??

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Five Ways Park was my stomping ground from '57, there was no track on there then...if there was at an earlier date I stand corrected...but then, two tracks a few hundred yards apart??

Now that PB has said this, I've looked at Streetview again, and maybe it wasn't the Fiveways roundabout; it might've been the next one along at Hucknall Road junction

miniat2.jpg

At a glance, they now look very similar. And it was the Hucknall Road roundabout near where my dad worked, which explains why I knew about the railway

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There was also one on Valley Road, near to City Hospital or Fiveways Pub, anyone remember it ?

I remember it! next to the five ways pub and island. then one day it was gone? cant remember the year?

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The miniature railway was on a grassy area next to the Five Ways pub which was situated near the Edwards Lane/Valley Road island. I lived just off Valley Road from 1960 - 1967 and would often see the train running during the summertime. It was very popular with the children in its day.

I can remember leaving the City Hospital after my wife had given birth to my first child and visiting the Five Ways pub. I had a glass or two to celebrate the birth of my son.

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Agree with denshaw. Not Fiveways.

Poohbear's photo in #21 shows the outline of where the track was - especially the stretch alongside Valley Road. My dad worked for many years at one of the shops on the Valley Road/Hucknall Road roundabout, and the railway was across the road from where he was.

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This has been talked about on here a few years ago. I remember the Ollerton miniature railway back in the 50's, it always used to start up at Easter Weekend when we would inevitably be staying at my uncles house in Edwinstowe. If you look on Google Maps, satellite mode, it started roughly where the Ollerton tourist information centre now is and ran parallel to the Worksop Road, I don't recall it being a very long journey.

The loco in the photo looks to be some sort of Britannia Class hybrid, but I can't remember much about it, except going for a run up the track a few times when I was little.

I recall going past the Valley Road miniature railway site many times when we used to go for tandem rides with my dad, usually on a Saturday or Sunday morning, surprisingly, it never seemed to be in use, I don't ever recall seeing it running at all as I'm sure we would have stopped and gone in, which we never did.

If you like that sort of thing and you're ever visiting deepest, darkest Essex, go to the Audley End Railway near Saffron Walden, www.audley-end-railway.co.uk, look on 'About us', 'Enthusiasts'. The railway runs for 1.5 miles through woods, tunnels and over the River Cam, it's really superb, they also have lot's of different gauge tracks as well, worth a visit, just ignore the Tudor Palace across the road.

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I phoned my sister up at lunchtime and asked her if she remembered the miniature railway on Valley Road. "Yes", she replied, "It was near the Five Ways pub". "Ah, gottcha denshaw" I thought. Then my sister said, "No, it wasn't there, it was further up by the City Hospital. It was a childrens park that was near the Five Ways pub." "Are you sure, definite, positive, absol..." "Yes", she interrupted, "near the City Hospital." So folks, I got it wrong, despite living there for years. I looked on Google Maps today and the two plots seem identical. Despite being wrong on this occasion, isn't it good how we can discuss a topic on Nottstalgia and come up with the correct answer.

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Been racking my brain on this one too for a while. I've even tried to recall it as I drove up Valley Road this lunchtime!

I'm still not clear so I'll settle for the majority vote. I thought today how similar the two parks are in many ways. Both seem to have obstructions to the layout of a railway though in the form of tennis courts etc. but I guess the line wasn't that big.

The one thing I do remember clearly though is that I never got to have a go on it as a youngster! (shame). The only time I ever used Valley Road park was for the odd (very boggy) game of football.

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