Early Butlins Miniature Railways

During the late-1920s, Hudswell, Clarke & Co. Ltd, a leading industrial locomotive builder based in Leeds, saw a downtown in business due to the recession. So they turned their attention to pleasure railways, drawing up designs for diesels that looked like steam engines. They believed the savings in labour and maintenance costs would surely prove appealing to operators, and it did.

The first one went to the North Bay Railway in Scarborough in 1931 and over the next seven years they built 8 more. Some went on to lead relatively stable lives, whilst others had several different homes. Two even ended up in a scrapyard. But astonishingly, all 9 still survive today.

We’ll be taking a look at all these locos in due course and in this particular article will focus on the two that were bought by Billy Butlin.

See our blogs on the railways at Golden Acre Park and the Pleasure Beach Express to read more on what happened to the other Hudswell Clarke locos.

In 1938 Billy Butlin ordered two of the 21″ gauge ‘Princess’ locos for use on a railway he was building at Bellahouston Park in Glasgow, in conjunction with the British Empire Exhibition. They were named Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret Rose and were identical to Princess Royal at Blackpool Pleasure Beach. Butlin obtained written permission from King George VI in order to use these names.

The railway only ran for one year but carried 500,000 people and was considered a huge success, although a crash between the two trains resulted in 17 people getting injured.

The following year, both locos were moved to Butlin’s Clacton holiday camp where a new railway had been built.

Princess Margaret Rose left Clacton in 1953 and was sent to a new railway at Butlin’s Pwllheli. In 1963 Billy Butlin bought the full size Princess Margaret Rose from British Railways, and also moved it to Pwllheli where it was put on display.

Princess Elizabeth was renamed Queen Elizabeth in 1953. It left Clacton in 1956 and was sent to a new railway at Butlin’s Ayr. In 1963 it was moved to the Minehead camp

Six of the Butlins camps ended up with miniature railways, and starting in the mid-1960s they all began switching over to the newer ‘CP Huntington’ locos made by Chance Rides in the USA. In 1971 both Hudswell Clarke locos were said to be “wore out” and were acquired by fairground dealer Rundle’s. They were moved to their yard in Lincolnshire where they spent the next 7 years dumped outside and partially dismantled. In 1978 they were sold to another Lincolnshire dealer and spent another 13 years dumped outside in a scrapyard – one of them was apparently upside down the whole time!

In 1991 both locos were rescued by Brell Ewart, now the owner of the full size Princess Margaret Rose, and moved to the Midland Railway in Derbyshire where they now share a shed with their larger namesake.