Coates Central

Railway Description

This railway itself has been going for over 20 years.

Paul & Christine have always fancied a garden railway layout and so when they moved to Coates in 1993 they had the opportunity to build a OO gauge railway. Paul found it very high maintenance with track cleaning and derailments as leaves would derail the trains.

Paul noticed an advert in a magazine for cheap Playmobile trains and they bought several different sets and started planning. In those days the nearest garden railway shop to them was G.R.S. at Princes Risborough. It was only after chatting with Brian and Caroline at a pub in Helpston shortly after Glendale Junction was born they realised they had a shop on their doorstep.

The name of Coates Central Railway is also credit to Brian as it originates from when ringing Brian regarding railway matters, Brian would answer with Glendale Junction and then joke he had Coates Central on the line. Paul and Christine simply adopted the name from then.

The G-scale layout started in August 1997 with just a single loop around the fish pond, then in April 2003 a second line was added with an extension down to the bottom end of the garden. Paul mainly runs American loco's and stock but does have a few English and German loco's and stock too. Photos of how the Coates Central Railway has developed over the past 20 years can be seen on the right.

If you have any questions relating to this layout, please feel free to contact us.