 joining me. Today I'm at Waitrose in Ritminsworth just meant to get my coffee. I've come here on the way to a miniature railway in Hartfordshire so Ritminsworth is in Hartfordshire but as you can see it's served by the Metropolitan Line and we're going to Watford now. There is a train once a day from here to Watford but it's a five in the morning so unfortunately we can't get that I thought it'd be a bit of a long wait at Watford so what I'm going to do I've got to go to Watford via Moor Park so I've got to go all the way down all these steps to Ritminsworth station where I shall get the train to Moor Park and then from Moor Park I shall um get the train on the Watford branch and we shall arrive at Watford Met station and then um we shall walk to Cassiopeia Park so just got to the bottom all these steps. This is one of my favourite Waitrose though this one because it's built on the roof of Station Car Park there's not many there's some Waitrose obviously where you can see trains from as you can see it's a Station Car Park and then the Waitrose Car Park is on top and there's another Metropolitan Line train just going out so I'm going to walk about a hundred yards that way to Ritminsworth station and um get the train. So we're now on the Metropolitan Line train the second Metropolitan Line train I changed at Moor Park and I've jumped now onto a Watford train we just called it Croxley there's a bit I'm going to try and show you out the window it's one of my favourite sections of the Underground where we go over a viaduct over the Grand Union Canal and it's also around here where if it ever happens it's not looking so likely at the moment a few years ago it was that they'd extend this line to Watford Junction it did leave in doubt what would happen to this stub into Watford Met it probably would have been closed but it could have been reused so the line would go off about here somewhere pretty about where those pushes out the look yeah to go about here I think but if you look any second now I promise the trees will end and we're going to get a really nice view of the Grand Union Canal just over there is the old Croxley Green Station which closed I think it was about 1996 I do remember as a child seeing a train on it about once so here is the that's the Grand Union Canal that's the marina and very soon we shall be arriving at Watford Met station so Watford Met station is a bit unusual because it doesn't really serve Watford Town Centre at all it's it's a fair walk I have done it because if you remember that video I made when I did get the parliamentary train at five in the morning from Rickmansworth to Watford I got on at Chalford Latimer and I then walked to Watford Junction station and got a train up north it was um it's a fair walk so today we're not actually going to go to the town centre we're going to leave the station and we're going to take the left and head down Cassiopeia, Cassiopeia Park Avenue into Cassiopeia Park itself you can see there's a few extra sidings here so if this had closed they might have used it as um some sidings for stabling trains but then there was also talk of having maybe a train every half an hour still serving this part of Watford just because people in this area of Watford are so used to having a train service they suddenly took it away by extending it to Watford Junction this episode of Watford would actually lose out so it'd be nice to think they would extend it to Watford Junction but keep this as well but time will tell if and when that ever happens I've also done steam on this line which I'm quite pleased about they when they did steam on the Met um a few years ago they ran steam from here to Chesham so that that was really nice to think I have actually you know departed this station on a steam train I don't know if that'll ever happen again now because the signaling has been upgraded possibly Sarah Sidden's will come up here so you can see there's a train stabled over there in one of the stabling sidings and there's also another one stabled in that stabling siding so we are now gonna get off the train we're gonna and leave the big trains and go and find the little trains at Casiobury Park I did also do a video here once a few years ago once the A-stock trains are stopped running they were still running one as a rat rail adhesion train and it was stabled in that siding there but I seem to think that's been scrapped now because they've now got a district line an x district line D-stock train as a rat so it's a sad thought I don't think we'll ever see an A-stock train running again there's I think one or two carriages preserved um but at least um you know Sarah Sidden's is still going seems a lot of long platforms at least I did get in right down the end of the train and so now I've got a bit of a walk to Casiobury Park not too far I just wanted to show you the Casiobury Park housing estate which this station more serves rather than serves Watford itself so we go up here up towards the ticket barriers and we shall then exit the station so for those of you who don't know where we are on the map we're here at Watford we came from Rickensworth so there's a curve that's not shown on the map and the train runs once every day at five in the morning and so today I've been to more like I didn't show you all of it but I changed the curve and bounced back there's our train sitting there the train we just came on and I'm going to go up and out of the station interestingly this station isn't step three now I wonder is the reason for that is because I possibly thought in my clothes and it never did so they never actually did the investment in making it step three so now here we go out of Watford mech station as we come out here let's go across the road so you can see the station we're in the Casiobury Park housing estate so behind me is Watford station I've got a walk this way this is Casiobury Park having I believe and down to Casiobury Park so I'm going to now head on down there next because they'll be in the park itself so here we are we're in Casiobury Park there's a lovely cedar tree behind us Casiobury Park was originally a country estate the country house that was here was finished in 1556 but unfortunately it was demolished in 1927 and it would have been somewhere over there I believe it's now in the middle of the housing estate so there's oh that sounds promising steam as well wasn't expecting steam today so we're gonna have a good time at the miniature railway but just a bit more about the park so it was once a country estate the house was demolished in 1927 the estate was owned by the Earl of Essex and then in about 1909 so before the house was demolished it was passed on to the council the estate and it became Watford's main park and I think the house sadly fell into disrepair perhaps wasn't seen to be something so special at the time so sadly it was demolished um so what you have now is a very pleasant park it's you know it's quite extensive I used to come here a lot as a child in fact here is where I had my first ever steam haulage it was a locomotive called Trevific and she's now down at the Royal Victoria Railway in Southampton which I haven't been to um but look I'm going to get some steam here today so I'm very pleased about that when I last came this this cafe wasn't here there's been lots of investment here since I last came they've really modernised the place none of that was there I don't think you can see over there but I can just see a puff of smoke from the steam train so let's make our way down there this is the main Grand Avenue if you follow this all the way up you'll come to Watford town centre and there used to be some these big gatehouse which unfortunately was demolished in the 70s and I believe there's a group out there today who um uh hoping to recreate that gatehouse so best of luck to them I'd love to see that happen so I used to come here a lot as a child uh used to go on the train a lot like I said Trevific was my first ever steam locomotive for haulage um my first standard gauge locomotive was met number one at Craneson somewhere else we should revisit because it's a miniature railway I remember it's pretty not the exact ones but there's paddling pools here no one's using them today I used to go now a lot as a child it was kind of like a really exciting outing you'd come and go swimming then we'd go on the train we're playing the park there's also the canal we're perhaps going to have a look at the canal afterwards but like I said um let's go see the most important thing here the miniature railway now from Odyssey there's um the diesel locomotive out and I can smell the steam so let's go and uh let's go and have our ride there's a third train coming you see that though there's no passage as well perhaps there's a gala or something so I'm not going on today well look there goes the steamer look just watch the train arrive and then we'll have our trip so it looks like there's quite weather with um so they've got one to call Conway Castle I didn't quite catch the name of the other one I've definitely had one of them for haulage and let's just see the steam locals over there so let's hopefully hopefully we'll get a trip on the steam train that'll be really cool well that's a nice surprise I think what I better do is go and buy a ticket because it's starting to rain but I really want to be on that steam haul train so let's go and ride the Watford Miniature Railway so we've just had a very exciting trip on the Watford Miniature Railway what I'm going to do now is tell you a bit about the history of the railway because it's it's grown and developed over the years so it actually started in 1959 but the station you see today wasn't the original station this was added in about 1982 so the railway goes off brown there up to the level crossing if we wander up there I'll show you the original station there's actually a disused station here um which um I've always missed Intel today but just there they've got a nice little display in that tent telling you the history so I and they've got some maps of how the railway developed this by the way is the Rivergate which runs through Cassiope Park um we'll have a look at that later because it's quite nice we're if I remember rightly so that's the Rivergate so the newest part of the railway is this the one down here um we're going to have to wait now for the train to pass but that's a nice thing to have to wait for so I don't mind um well the gates are open closed so we'll watch the train go past it's Pilgrim again and then um I'll tell you a little bit more about the history of the railway so she's just pulling out on the station right now so as Pilgrim takes another group of passengers for a trip around the Watford Minutes Railway system I'm going to show you a bit more about the railway so as I said this is the newest part this was added in about 1981 1982 Lofato Pilgrim she used to run at Network which is one of those Minutes Railways I never made it to it so I'm a bit disappointed so when this railway first opened in 1959 the station was here and if you look the actual gate is still there which I think it's quite cool the gate and the platform would have been just there and it ran from here I think round there and it ended up there and then later on it was made a full circle and then once it'd been made a full circle the extension to the station was added and also the bloom loop so this is talks about Minutes Railways what they are this is classes of bloom so it goes all the way around there and then this is like the bloom this bit here this so I'll show you I mean there's a junction and it does a loop comes back to itself I think we'll proceed the train so the train's gone around there the engine sheds are over there when we were on the train we saw they were steaming up Maori she's another steam locom I remember riding behind as a child steam trains coming now that's what pilgrims are fast again so you can see there's a set point the pilgrims going to go onto the loop she'll go right round there and come back down here so I'll let you do just that so what would have happened is I believe the station would have been there the railway went round not this track but to over there and then in the 60th the second track here was added to make it a loop and then eventually it became as I said a bloom and then in the 80s the spur down to the railway station was added so what we'll do we'll just see pilgrim one more time come off the bloom loop so as I said this is the end of the bloom loop and then she'll go back that way the way she came back to the railway station and then we'll finish by going to have a look at the river gate again and the Grand Union canal just to show you a bit more of what there is in Kashiropa because I said it was once a country estate but I'm not going to go and show you the site of the house because there really is nothing particularly exciting to see so let's just see one more time we'll see pilgrim pass so I think the route originally ended just there when it was then to end and then this is like the second thing which comes on my castle's banking the train I think whether it's um because the weather's not great and it's the infamous leaves on the line time of year they've decided to give pilgrim that bit of support so she's not working too hard um I don't mind because I've got two like us for haulage or I've actually already had on my castle for haulage so this is quite a pleasant part the park is a bit I wanted to finish the video on taking you over this really quite pleasant bridge over the river gate it's always fascinating here because there's like a weir and it comes off the canal I think there's a section of the river gate there's also the Grand Union canal so as a child I used to come here quite a lot I used to sort of you know we'd go on the miniature railway we'd come and see the river we'd usually walk up to the canal and I just used to find this such a fascinating place and I always wanted to walk into the woods beyond Cashew River Park but I always had um had sisters I've got three younger sisters who are always a bit little and they only really wanted to go in the paddling pool they didn't want to go for a walk so I've only about once actually walked beyond there but it's somewhere you know I've always enjoyed coming as a child and as I said I have my first steam loco for haulage here so that's why you know it's quite a special place for me here I do believe there's possibly a water mill there I might be wrong in saying that but that's what I think and here is the weir on the river gate so one more thing to see the locks on the Grand Union canal which is just here so this part of the canal is actually fed by the river gate and up there the canal and the gate are all one but bridge number 167 this must be I suppose it's known as Cashew River Park lock I'm not entirely sure um so here we are we started at Waitrose by the Metropolitan Railway we've had a lot of fun exploring the park going on the Metropolitan Railway we're finished here on the oldest mode of transport at Cashew River Park the Grand Union canal thank you very much for watching and goodbye