Acton Miniature Railway

Acton Miniature Railway (AMR). is a 7¼in gauge railway situated in the grounds of the Museum Depot at Acton. It is built and operated by the London Transport Museum Friends. During depot open weekends, the railway provides rides with a variety of motive power and rolling stock.

Acton Miniature Railway 7 ¼ inch

Built and maintained by the London Transport Museum Friends, and other volunteers, this 7.25″ gauge railway is situated in the ground of the Museum Depot in Acton. The railway operates during open weekends at the Depot, carrying passengers on an out and back ride. The line is single with passing loops at either end. The AMR’s only locomotive, a Metropolitan Railway Bo-Bo electric, has recently returned from overhaul and trains are operated with this and privately-owned visiting stock with a London theme. Regular visitors include a 1938 stock tube train and Metropolitan 4-4-0T Steam loco. Plans are afoot to extend the line further along the side of the depot, and to extend the permanent signalling (which is controlled from a redundant London Underground signal cabin lever frame).

Address: Museum Depot, 118-120 Gunnersbury Lane, London W3 8BQ
Telephone: 020 7379 6344 (Main LT Museum enquiry number)
Operator: Volunteers on behalf of (and including) London Transport Museum Friends
Line Length: 100 yards End to End
First opened: 2005
Website: Acton Miniature Railway Website

Site Entry Fee
Locomotives

No	Name	Type	Builder	Built
12	Sarah Siddons	4w-4wBE

Opening Times: During depot open weekends, usually 11am to 5pm. See website for details of forthcoming open weekends.

Fares: Depot Entry Fee: Adults £15.00, Concessions £11.50 (Allow 12 months free entry), Accompanied children under 16 free. Train rides £1 for all.

The railway is fortunate in that it was allowed to use the Westinghouse Style ‘N’ miniature power lever frame from Drayton Park in the AMR Signal Cabin. This was installed on the 25th September 2008, this donation was by kind permision of the London Transport Museum Depot and the Museum Friends.

Closeup of the levers and the manufactures serial number plate from Drayton Park lever frame. Records show that Drayton Park frame was originally a 35 levers lever installation, with 10 points levers, 5 repeaters, 21 signals with 6 calling on arms. Picture taken on the 28th February 2009 Picture copyright © Mark Adlington.

General view of the 11 lever Westinghouse Style ‘N’ miniature power lever frame in the signal cabin. The yet to be completed mechanical locking is beneath the coloured lever quadrants for the points and signals. Picture taken on the 28th February 2009 Picture copyright © Mark Adlington.

Closeup of the makers plate for Drayton Park which is where this part of the frame came from. An interesting item to note is that as a part of the Drayton Park frame, this was the temporary installation at Holborn whilst the ‘B’ frame was taken away to make room for the IMR Picture taken on the 28th February 2009 Picture copyright © Mark Adlington.

The lever frame looking very colorful with ‘flash’ photography, and a temporary track diagram propped up!

Acton Miniature Railway with their temporary LT style signals protecting the next section. Signal WN1 (at the top) is the Red / Green stop signal. RWN3 (bottom signal) is the Yello/ Green distant signal for the next section signal WN3.

Not strictly signalling, but nice anyway, this is one of the fleet of standard gauge trains at the AMR

London Transport Museum Depot at Acton

The Museum Depot at Acton holds the majority of the Museum’s collections which are not on display in the main Museum in Covent Garden. It opens to the public for special events, including themed open weekends.

The Museum Depot houses over 370,000 items of all types, including many original works of art used for the Museum’s celebrated poster collection, vehicles, signs, models, photographs, engineering drawings and uniforms. Together these form one of the most comprehensive and important records of urban transport anywhere in the world.

The Depot’s main purpose is to act as a working museum store. It provides 6000 square metres of storage space in secure, environmentally controlled conditions. Here the curators work to catalogue and conserve objects to preserve our heritage for future generations.