Memories of Weymouth mini railway and star Julie Andrews

It has been an absolute delight to see old pictures of the charming little railway, which was on the west side of Radipole Lake and closed for good in 1980. 

The railway was opened in 1947 by Baydon Miniature Railways, one of several seaside railways it built during that era.

It ran down beside Radipole Lake for about 500m, turned around in a balloon loop, and then headed back to the station.

READ MORE: 'Timeless memories of Weymouth miniature railway'

We've had word that an international film star, whose films were much loved by many of us in our childhoods and still are, would visit the little railway and spend hours riding the train around while her parents were on stage at Weymouth Pavilion. 

The youngster who would ride the railway in Weymouth grew up to be none other than the huge film star Dame Julie Andrews, known for musicals The Sound of Music and Mary Poppins.

You can imagine how thrilled we were here at Looking Back to hear from Sue Taylor, whose father Stephen Brown,  was one of the partners in Baden Miniature Railways, along with David Curwen and Jo Becheley-Crundall.

Sue tells us: "David was the engineer and responsible for the building of the engines, my father, a Berkshire farmer, was responsible for laying the track and eventually building the little station during the winter months, with the help of one of our tractor drivers.

"I have many happy memories as a child of coming down to Weymouth with my father in an old ex US GMC army lorry that we had for transporting the railway track etc.

"I was also thrilled to see the picture of ‘Simmie’ , a very dear man, who was also from Berkshire but spent all summer driving the engines.

"He used to have digs with a family nearby, but I can’t remember their name.

"One of his many passengers was Julie Andrews, who used to spend many hours riding the train when her parents were performing in Weymouth Pavilion.

Julie Andrews used to spend many hours riding the miniature railway when her parents were performing at Weymouth Pavilion (Image: By Eva Rinaldi - Julie Andrews, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?cu)

"Later in the 50s Baden Miniature Railways also ran little electric engined boats on a sectioned off bit of Radipole lake just by the railway.

One of the Atlantic class engines being repaired at the farm of Sue's father one winter (Image: Sue Taylor)

Above are some images taken by Sue Taylor as a child of one of the Atlantic Class engines (she thinks it is Robin Hood) back at her father's farm for repairs one winter.

We are still keen to see more photos of the railway and if anyone has any Sue would love to see them - and so would we.

You can email them to joanna.odonnell@dorsetecho.co.uk or call 01305 830973.