Yahoo News Grandad spends 30 years building working miniature railway in back garden
Derek Burwell, 84, placed the track around the edge of his 40ft (12m) wide garden at his home in Walsall.
Watch: Grandad spends 30 years building working miniature railway in his back garden
Back gardens typically contain grass lawns, furniture, sheds, and if you're lucky, a gnome. However, one train enthusiast has taken it a step further by meticulously creating a fully functioning miniature railway station in his backyard over the course of 30 years.
Derek Burwell, 84, has placed a track around the edge of his 40ft (12m) wide garden at his home in Pelsall, Walsall.
The grandfather-of-two spends his spare time travelling around it on the eight mini engines he built from hand and has forked out thousands of pounds on his hobby since 1993.
It comes after homeowner Lauren Chessum found a vast abandoned model railway in her back garden in Derbyshire and decided to fix it up.
Chessum described herself as a model railway “newbie”. However, Burwell is very much a veteran and his garden features a host of railway memorabilia, including a 100-year-old signal he reclaimed from a level crossing.
Burwell said: "It gave the neighbours a bit of a surprise when they saw I had my own railway track but it's something I've always wanted to do.”
Burwell constructs everything from a workshop at the end of his garden where he can spend hours on end each day building and restoring old engines.
The track is made from timber and aluminium while he has a mixture of electric and battery-powered engines as well as petrol-driven hydraulic ones.
"I used to enjoy riding the train in Walsall Arboretum but that closed down due to health and safety issues in the late 80s," he added.
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"So I thought I'd build one myself. Now I can now ride my train whenever I like because it's in my back garden.
The father-of-two's obsession with locomotives began when he was a child when his dad took him to work at Birmingham Coach and Carriage Company.
He then spent his working life repairing and restoring engines, rolling stock and carriages before he finally retired.
'It keeps me really active'
Burwell said: "I have always been into locomotives. My dad would take me to work and I would get to sit in all these amazing engines. One was built for the late Queen.
"As I got older, I thought it would be a nice hobby and keep me busy. It's better I'm doing this than being stuck in front of the TV all day.
"It keeps me really active and I enjoy it. Not many people can say they have a fully working railway in their back garden.
"There are some fabulous miniature railways across the country but you have to know where to find them. People like to keep them a secret."
Burwell lives alone after being widowed three years ago following the loss of his wife Margaret, who died aged 73.
He still sees his daughter and two grandchildren regularly and even gets grandson Thomas to help him out with odd jobs.
He said: "My grandson helps me out with my jobs, he can weld, and I have passed my love of trains on to him.
"We used to have birthday parties when the grandkids were children and give everyone a ride on the railway, we used to have great fun.
"My wife just put up with it really, she didn't have much of a choice. She knew how much I enjoyed building this track.".
Burwell's specialist skills are still called on by other miniature railways lovers and collectors eager to return their vehicles back to their former glory.
He is currently working on a carriage which had been sitting in storage for 30 years.
Where is the biggest model railway in the UK?
The biggest model railway in the UK accurately depicts a 1.5-mile stretch of real track at Heaton Lodge Junction, Mirfield, West Yorkshire, from 1983.
It took Simon George eight years and cost him £250,00 to painstakingly build it.
Initially starting as a hobby in 2015, the project even includes a miniature version of George, aged 12.
He painstakingly found hundreds of images from the 1980s, using them to create a detailed map that served as the project's blueprint.
The extensive layout covers a distance of three miles and is designed to accommodate both full-length passenger and freight trains.
The layout measures an impressive 196 feet in length and 50 feet in width.
