Description:Men riding a miniature railway at Pitmaston House, Moseley, Birmingham. From a photograph album belonging to the Bolton family, Oakamoor.
An article in the Sheffield Weekly Telegraph, Saturday 05 September 1903 describes the railway:
"A Miniature Railway. Sir John Holder, of Midland fame, is perhaps the first landed proprietor to introduce whole railway system in his private grounds. True, the undertaking is only half a mile long, the gauge of the single line is but ten and a quarter inches, the locomotives in size are not much larger than handsome models, and the coaches are practically open truck-; but the whole thing makes a complete working railway, with signal apparatus, facing points, sidings and even a tunnel. This fascinating toy is extremely popular with all the members of the household at Pitmaston, Sir John's residence, and it has been a source of great amusement at garden parties. There is one characteristic feature about the arrangement. Everything has been fashioned after British railways. The locomotives and carriages are repaired in the workshops belonging to what is facetiously styled the "Pitmaston and Moor Green Railway Company,’’ of which Sir John Holder and his sons are the directors. The engine-building factory adjoins the line, and is fully equipped for turning out elaborate mechanical handicraft. It would be difficult to find better samples of this class of work than the three miniature locomotives. One, which Sir John himself drives, is a faithful reproduction of the Flying Dutchman type of engine on the Great Western Railway, with an immense single driving wheel and outside cylinders. This machine runs the “long distance express” and can be driven by a lady. Another, following closely on the lines of a modern Great Northern engine, is constructed in a two-inch scale; and the third is of American build, with coupled wheels."