Sanday Light Railway

The Sanday Light Railway was a privately-owned minimum gauge railway on the island of Sanday, Orkney, Scotland.

The railway was of RailGauge|7.25 gauge, construction began in 2000 and the line closed at the end of 2006. It was the most northerly passenger carrying railway in the British Isles, and although it was primarily the owner's hobby it did achieve the status of a tourist attraction and local curiosity.

The railway sometimes ran one of its two steam locomotives, a 2-4-2 and a 2-4-0, but more often one of three petrol locomotives. The railway also owned a number of items of rolling stock, including a very rare Cromar White first-class carriage, of which only six were made [cite news |title=Do the Locomotion with Charlie |url=http://living.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=1129&id=314422006. |work=The Scotsman |author=Julia Welstead |date=4 March 2006 |accessdate=2006-11-21] .

Although trains had been operating occasionally in some form beforehand [cite news | title=From Heat And Dust To Sanday Shores | author=Sandra Towrie | date=21 October 2005 | accessdate=2006-11-21 | work=Times Educational Supplement | page=8] , the railway was officially opened to the public in August 2006 by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies [cite news | title=Hell's Angel has one track mind | work=Daily Mail | author=Mike Merritt | date=4 September 2006 | accessdate=2006-11-21] just a few months before the debacle of its closure associated with the owner being unable to keep his promise to hold Sir Peter's civil partnership ceremony there [cite web | url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2533465,00.html | title=Gay marriage of a royal master hits the buffers | date=6 January 2007 | accessdate=2007-01-28 | work=The Times | author=David Lister] .

The owner is now blaming all kinds of organisations for the demise of the railway and is taking legal action against them. [http://www.sandaylightrailway.co.uk/]

References

External links

* [http://web.archive.org/web/20060422005132/http://www.sandaylightrailway.co.uk/ The railway's website (via archive.org version of April 22nd, 2006)]
*oscoor gbx|HY605372