Duck Alley started life when some good friends of mine discovered that Chesham had a Watercress Railway - albeit a small affair situated behind Weirhouse Mill in Waterside, Chesham (see History pages elsewhere on this web site). Such was the variety and amount of Industry in Chesham and its comparative length as a Town (over four miles), I reasoned that it would have made a very good candidate for a Narrow Gauge line in the style of 'Arthur Heywood' 15" Gauge Estate Railway at Eaton.  There it stopped - existing only as a design (loads of scribbles!) for 15 years until one weekend I was helping operate Lynton Road (see my 'Contacts' page) at Wimborne Minster and happened to walk across the room and discover Steve Bennets Black Dog Mining stand and Gn15.  I saw the light!

The Chesham Waterside Railway (CWR) was built when some of Chesham's Mill Owners and the Watercress Growers grumbled about the severe congestion being experienced on Chesham's narrow streets. Because Chesham sits in a narrow valley, the roads cannot take the volume of traffic and land is scarce so a solution was sought. After WW1 the easy availability of Government Surplus 15 inch gauge track work, allowed a network of railways to be laid down through the alleyways, bypassing the principle bottleneck of Red Lion Street.. For nearly 20 years the Railway provided a means to move the Watercress, Wood Products, Grain and Leather that was the life blood of Chesham before WW2. However during this period these industries also slowly declined and slowly but surely the Railway fell out of use and the cost of its maintenance became a burden. Abandonment occurred just before WW2, the line and its stock being given to the War Effort.

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