Local Miniature-Gauge Railway Helps Commemorate Crewe 180th Anniversary

A special ‘Display & Running Models of Crewe Built Locos’ event took place at The Peacock Railway on Saturday 9th September 2023.

2023 sees the 180th anniversary of the Grand Junction Railway Engineering Works moving from Edge Hill to Crewe. 

To mark this historic 180th anniversary, in association with Crewe Town Council, members of the South Cheshire Model Engineering Society hosted a ‘Display & Running Models of Crewe Built Locos’ at their The Peacock Railway premises behind The Peacock Inn on Crewe Road.

The event featured the running of miniature-gauge locomotives whose full-scale equivalents were Crewe-built or designed from the glamour of a Princess through to the workhorse of the Black Five, with train rides available on their 5-inch railway track, which is almost a quarter of a mile in length. 

A hand-built scale-model of a ‘Crewe Tractor’ was on display outdoors. The Crewe Tractor was made in Crewe Locomotive works in 1916 and 1917 for use on the temporary narrow-gauge railways in France during the Great War.

There was also be an exhibition inside the Clubhouse of Crewe-built steam locomotives in different gauges: 3.5-inch, 5-inch, O gauge, OO gauge and Gauge 1. One of several locomotives to view close-up was a 5-inch gauge model of the ‘Turbomotive’ prototype, which was hand-built by Ted Stowell over a period of 6 years in the 1990s, and featuring a 200-psi boiler and 60,000 rpm turbine.

One of the visitors was John Cowdall, aged 80, from Crewe, and a former Rolls-Royce worker, who was one of the earliest members of South Cheshire Model Engineering Society.

The following day (Sunday 10th September) there was a Public Running Day at The Peacock Railway, which included some Crewe-built locomotives in their miniature-gauge form.

When the Grand Junction Railway company opened its works there in 1843, Crewe was a village with a few hundred residents. Over the course of 30 years the number grew to about 40,000 as the industry transformed the entire landscape.

The first locomotive rolled off the new production line in October 1843 and, over the following decades, the town became synonymous with the railways, with more than 8,000 locomotives built.

The Peacock Railway was founded over 55 years ago. It has always promoted engineering in all its forms.

It had a track at the Horseshoe Pub in Willaston, and moved to its current site, behind the Peacock some 25 years ago. The new tracks, 5 inch, 3.5 inch and 2.5 inch had to be built from scratch, which took two years, and since then the club has built steaming bays, two traversers’, station, signalling system and all the trucks we use for the passengers.

The club members build the model locos themselves and also have members that have built traction engines and a Foden steam wagon, half full size. There is a lot of expertise within the club membership, and a proportion of members that worked a Crewe Locomotive Works.

Written by Jonathan White