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West Sussex Diddly’s Miniature Railway closes

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The 10¼in-gauge Diddly’s Miniature Railway in Brooklands Park, East Worthing, West Sussex, closed on September 23, with the track lifted in October.

It was opened in 1965 as a normal, steam-operated 9½in-gauge railway, and was re-gauged in 1967 when extended around the large lake.

Perhaps the most bizarre-looking loco yet depicted in The RM, Diddly Dum ‘heads’ a train on the recently closed railway in Brooklands Park, Worthing. PETER NICHOLSON

Latterly, motive power has been anything but ‘normal’, these being steam-outline Bo-BoDHs Diddly Dum (J Hudell and K. McCluskey, 1985) and Diddly Dee (K McCluskey, 2009).

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An attempt to sell the railway in situ failed, and it is not known what is to become of the stock. The local authority released its ‘masterplan’ for the park in mid-October, confirming there was no place for the railway.

The trackbed will become a lakeside walk with ‘inclusive-access’ surfacing.


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