 Hello, thank you for joining me. You can see where I am. I'm at Crawley today. We've come here for an episode of Miniature Railway Britain. We're going to go and visit the Crawley and District Model Engineers Society's railway up at Goff's Park, which is just up the line from here. But first, I thought we'd start with the station. Now, this is the second station to serve the town. This station opened in July 1968, but the line through here on Crawley, the first station back in 1848, and that station was just there. The platforms are still there and the gates are just going down, so there's obviously a train coming in one direction or the other. Now, I think that's the high street over there. So the idea was they built the station there to serve the older part of the town. But as the town grew up and became a new town after the war, it was decided to move the station. That station was a bit too small, and now we've got this, okay, then we've got two platforms, two quite long platforms. It comfortably sits a 12 car train. I just arrived on one. So this is the 1960s replacement. Now, when the railway that we are going to go to opened, if you'd come to it then you'd have arrived on that station, because the railway opened, the Miniature Railway opened in 1962. Now, I've seen this railway a few times. I've been past it on the train, but I've never actually had a ride. So I'm excited to have a ride and go past this line on the train from the Miniature Railway. Interestingly, there's a nice old lattice footbridge here, quite a big one, but that's outside the ticket barriers of the station. I might even go for a walk over it, just because I can kind of think. So if you look at it, you can see the width, it must have been built to span a good yard. So I can only assume there was a good yard here. This derelict building here is called Overline House. When they opened this new station, they decided it would be a good idea to have some office accommodation which they could rent out. I suppose the name Overline House is fairly obvious. It's not quite over the line, but certainly looks over the line. But it's derelict now. There was talk of it becoming apartments. I'm not sure if they mean knocking it down and building apartments or just simply converting it to apartments. So if you were to get an apartment there, you'd have quite a good way to certainly have very good access. You can pretty much if I lived there and I had access, I'd be tempted to have a rope ladder going out the window and I could just get straight on the train. This is the funny little back entrance to the station with one set of ticket barriers. So that takes us out over there. There's a modern bridge, so that's not the original bridge. With this station, there would have been a concrete bridge, but to make the station accessibility for at all safer a bridge we're lifting. Although it actually was already set free because of this entrance, but I suppose it's a bit inconvenient. Here comes a Southern Class 377. So another 12 car train. So as you can see, this station comfortably handles the 12 car trains. They were making announcements on the train down. So if you're going to this station and that station, you need to travel in these couches, but I didn't need to worry. Well, I was right at the front where it was quiet. So there's a couple of level crossings up there. What we'll do, we'll make our way out the station, we'll go down to the next level crossing where we can have a look at the other end of the original Crawley Railway station. We are up on the modern footbridge looking at Overline House. Funny what I said about having, if you lived there, you can always have direct taxes onto the platform. I've noticed on this side there's a big hotel there. And in the platform just there, there's a direct taxis from the platform to the hotel. So that's interesting. So in order to use that entrance, I assume you have to be staying at the hotel. Anyway, I'm going to make my way down and out the station and I said we're going to go and have a look at it a bit more closely at the site, the old station. So we're now outside the front of the station and there's some hoarding showing what's going to happen with the development. So we've got Overline House above us. I think from looking at this, it looks like they are keeping Overline House but refurbishing it. And then all along where the original station was, they're going to build lots of flats. So it's all going to look quite different in a few years time. But as I said, they will have very easy access to the railway station. From looking at that there, it looks like there's going to be a kind of a canopy coming out here and then there's going to be a shop just there. So let's go and have a look at the old station. Then we're going to go and look at the little station. And it's not particularly exciting area here, I think would have been the four quarter of the original station. You can just see Overline House in the background now. It gets more interesting up here because we have got something from the earlier railway days here, which survives, which we're going to have a look at. It's just in front of us. There is an old signal box saying Crawley. So this would have been the main signal box for the station. I can say I think this is the high street. This is the older part of Crawley. And then you can see how the box would have controlled the busy level crossing. There's a pub there called The Railway. So that way is looking towards Horsham, looking towards London. We get a very good view when literally at the end of the original platforms. And then I suppose that was the railway hotel. And then that's the signal box. Now the signal box, you can go and visit. They do have open days. In fact, even they're advertising one up there says they're having an open day. Any problem is they tend to, well, I think they're all on a Saturday. And the miniature railway runs on a Sunday. So you can't actually come and do both in one day, which I think is rather a shame to be quite nice if, you know, they have some other days on a Sunday because if it was open, we would definitely make this part of the video. Let's have a look. So it says it's a grade two listed signal box, Crawley signal box preservation society. So it's like you go in there, it says display. Oh, I see. Yes. I think you can go up to the box and you can have a look in the lab room underneath. So let's just go and have one more look at the front of Crawley signal box. So it's, I'd like to go and do that, but I'd have to come here one Saturday. So perhaps if I'm down here one Saturday, could go and do a video on that. It's just a shame. The two would have complimented each other nicely. We've done one video of both the miniature railway and the signal box, but hasn't worked like that. So there we are. That's signal box. I'm going to now go and find the miniature railway. So I've just walked along this road there, which parallels the railway. And we have now arrived at Goths Park, where this miniature railway is situated. So as I said, this is the railway line between Three Bridges and Horsham. And I said I've seen the miniature railway from the standard gauge railway. So now is our time to see the standard gauge railway from the miniature railways. As we arrive into the park, there's a nice lot of daffodils out, which all look very nice. And we can see a circle coming around there, the miniature railway. So I'm excited to have arrived, not been here before, but as I said, I have seen it. So I wonder what they're going to be running as a train. I mean, just see some people getting on the train. So what I'll do, I'll hang around here. We'll see the train arrive, and then we'll go for a ride ourselves on the Goths Park light rail. So a 67005 Queens messenger goes off on the next journey. It's nice to get some 67 haulage, even if it was a miniature. You can see some of the other locals on shed. There's a warship part there. There's a class 20 and a class 66. So what we're going to do now, I'm just going to walk along beside the railway and tell you a few things about the railway. So as I mentioned, the club has been around since 1962, but the railway first opened in 1963. So it's going to be 60 years old this year. Now when it started, it wasn't quite as long as it is now. We saw that from the ride, it's straight. So there's the station, runs straight or straight with a slight kink just past the oak tree, and then there's a loop around comes back here. There's another loop. So when it first opened, it was just this one piece of track straight with a kink up and down, and the trains just went backwards and forwards. So that's what it was like in 1962. And then it was a few years later, it was extended to form the route it forms now. I can hear the level crossing gates on the Sandagates line going down. So we might be about to get big and little trains together. The little train is just coming along now on the, when the big train, I'm assuming it's coming from that way. Could be going the other way. Are we going to get the two together? Let's watch the little one go past anyway. Okay, so the Sandagates train hasn't arrived, but at least the little one has passed and the little one isn't holding up the traffic at the level crossings. So let's just, we'll just walk along here and see what happens. I want to see the Sandagates train go by. If it's that long, it might even see the little train come along again. It's something interesting about Rays Track. They're a lot more visible from a distance. So say if you are passing on the train, it's perhaps more noticeable. The one thing they obviously don't do is they don't have points, but I have been to, you know, the more I go to them, the more interesting I find of Rays Track railways. And I like how they, like I think, they, they're like a fence. They cut through the landscape. And also you kind of can see, you get to see the local more eyes length. In fact, it's funny because when I sit here, I can see a local go past the eye level. And then if I turn to the Sandagates line, well, we're not going to see a local, but we'll see her train. You don't get many local trains on this line. They all seem to be, well, I came on a class three, seven, seven. I've seen the old Thameslink train go past. And yeah, right now the gates are down, but we haven't actually, oh, what's this? Clare train. It's keeping me in suspense this. It's a very nice place to wait, you know, amongst the Daffodils. I can see the Goffs Park mansion just up top of the hill. We'll go up there. Once you've had a ride on the train, we'll go up and have a look at that. But I want to see a train on both lines. And it's frustrating knowing that the barriers are down and there's no train. I can see the little class 67 down there waiting to come forward with its next lot of passengers. So see what happens. I think we're finally going to get, there we go. It's a Thameslink train. And the Ziphon queue. So that was my little ambition was to, to stand here and have big and small trains pass me on each side. So I'm quite pleased now I've achieved that ambition. I'm going to do a bit more line siding and I might go for another ride before I go. And then I'm going to, we'll walk up to the top of the hill and we'll have a look at the mansion up there. It's a great time here at the Goffs Park miniature railway and a couple of trips behind there class 67. So that 67.005 is one of the loco's which would haul the Royal train. So, and there's also 67.006. I have seen them out on the network, occasionally never actually seen them on the Royal train. So it's quite nice to travel behind that loco in miniature. What I'm going to do now though, seeing as we're here, I thought we'll walk up to see the mansion in the house, in the house, which this was all their garden once. And now they've got the miniature railway in the garden. Well, they've had the miniature railway for 60 years as we found out. So you can see the site of the miniature railway. It's quite interesting. They've got a signal just as you start. And then I was talking to them. So they set the signal off and then the train can go around. Sometimes they run more than one train because, you know, there's quite the capacity to do it, but they do it on line of sight. So once one trains out, they know when the next one can go and they regulate it with the signal, which they have. So yeah, as I say, we've got three sets of railways or four tracks, technically, two minutes of tracks and then two standard gauge tracks. There's a sign there. Look, just saying Goff's Park Railway running today. It's five inch gauge. There is some three and a half inch gauge, but it doesn't currently run the whole length. So they're not running for any three and a half inch at the moment. They run most Sundays. Well, I think every Sunday throughout the main part of the season, certainly from Easter to October, but this year they've started their season list a bit earlier, which is quite nice. It's not yet Easter, so we can come on the daylight today. It's a very nice park to visit. So, you know, if you're out Crawley Way, do come and visit the park. It's a flat walk from the station. Even the next station on the railway, the standard gauge line, Ifield, isn't far that way. I might even go there and take it off, but that station is only served by the 10th length trains. The southern trains don't stop there. I'm just heading up the hill now and we're going to go up to the top, have a look at the mansion. Well, here we are at the top of the hill. Little train is just down there, just making its way back to the station, just about to see it there, going along. And we're going to go and have a look at the mansion. So, the mansion was built in 1882 for a banker called Edwin Hettney. And he had, yeah, and all of this land. So, that's where he built his mansion, situated nicely at the top of the hill. When the mansion was built, the railway would have already been there, because I said it opened in 1848. So, it wasn't like quite often you have it with main lines that they go through, you know, people's land and the landowners weren't very happy. So, you get things like stations bill or tunnels to hide the railway. None of that he would have looked out at the railway, not the miniature railway, just the standard gauge railway, from his house here. So, this is, it was originally actually called Goff's Hill House. Maybe, if this is Goff's Park, this is Goff's Hill, which we've just come up to the top of. Very interesting house to look at. You, I don't think you can go in it anymore. It was a, it was a lake just over there. Have a look at it a second. It used to be the Towns Museum, but I've been told the museum has now moved to the Town Centre. And from talking to some of the volunteers at the railway, they said it is well worth a visit. So, we won't go there today. It's not open on Sunday. But maybe another time. Maybe I should come back on the Saturday. We can go to the signal box. So, there you go. That's the back of the house. So, it certainly had some very nice views. I think beyond here it's all housing estates. Nice rare flowers coming out. And then, I think, there's a lake here. So, it's a really pleasant park if you like. You know, especially to come here in the spring, see the daffodils out, and see, you know, just have a pleasant walk around the gardens. Have a look at the lake, which I'm about to show you. It seems like a really nice place to come for a walk. And if you come on a Sunday, a ride on the miniature train. So, I hope you enjoyed this video. Thank you very much for watching. Do come and visit Goff's Park and the Goff's Park Major Railway. Please do feel free to like, subscribe, and comment from the lake at Goff's Park. Goodbye.