Statfold Barn Railway and Museum

The Statfold Barn Railway is a narrow gauge railway based near Tamworth, Staffordshire and partially in Warwickshire, England. Founded by engineering entrepreneur Graham Lee and his wife Carol at their farm-based home, they originally designed what is still termed the garden railway, in which Graham could run his trains and Carol could design an extensive English country garden around a lake. Graham Lee chaired the family-owned LH Group, with its main focus on railway engineering services. After LH Group acquired what remained of the Hunslet Engine Company in 2005, Graham pursued the opportunity to acquire the last steam locomotive built by Hunslet. Commissioned in 1971, it had been ordered by Leeds-based Robert Hudson & Co Ltd, who supplied and installed a complete railway system for the Trangkil sugar mill estate in Indonesia. As he pursued the Hunslet, Graham noticed a number of other interesting but defunct steam locomotives of European origin in Indonesia, and set about recovering these as well. After Wabtec acquired LH Group in 2012, Graham retained the rights to produce steam locomotives under the Hunslet name. He had produced the first new steam powered Hunslet in 2006, and also restored several locomotives in the collection. In 2017, Graham and Carol Lee gave the collection of over 100 locomotives and associated vehicles, equipment and ephemera to the newly formed Statfold Narrow Gauge Museum Trust, to ensure the collection was retained and maintained at its current site. Today the railway has an extensive workshop where locomotives are built and restored. The railway is open to the public.