Guy Mitchell and the Brook House Model Railway

Newspaper articles on Guy Mitchell

November 1910 Sheffield Daily Telegraph

What is probably one of the most perfect little garden railways in existence is to be found at Totley, a mile or so past the recognised railway station.

It is situated in the grounds of Mr. G. S. Mitchell. of Brook House, Grove Road, and that gentleman is the designer and constructor. His garden is far from large - as country gardens go - but every advantage has been taken of what space there is, and the length of the track runs into nearly four hundred yards. Seventy odd feet of this is laid under a beautifully-built brick tunnel, which for stability would pass Board of Trade regulations. The track is laid in circular form, and winds round a pretty model lake. It is an exact facsimile, except in size, of the Midland Railway Company's line, which runs within a very short distance of the spot. There are miniature sleepers and chairs, and the gradient of the track is denoted on boards placed along the embankment. The whole railways is built to scale, and is an eighth of the size of the real thing. The points and signals are worked from a signal box, which is large enough to accommodate three or four persons.
 

The engine needs little description, It is an exact model of those used by the London and North-Western Railway Company for fast passenger services. It is built on the same scale as the railway, and is an eighth of the size of an ordinary locomotive. It weights about four hundredweight, and the tender is estimated to weigh another hundredweight. It is a beautiful piece of machinery, and can easily attain a speed of 15 miles an hour. When Mr. Mitchell takes a tour round his garden he drives the engine from the tender.
 

In the course of an interesting chat, which he had with a representative of the "Sheffield Daily Telegraph," he laughingly declared that it was rather difficult to balance when the engine was rounding the curves at twelve miles an hour. "I have had one or two spills," he said, "but nothing serious. They were due to the 'pointsman' on duty working the wrong lever."
Mr. Mitchell explained that his wife, or a friend, generally worked the points and signals whilst he drove round the grounds. The engine, he said, was capable of pulling a load of seven or eight people at a good speed.
 

He gave our representative a few details regarding the construction of the railway. The track, he said, took him six months to construct. Tons and tons of ashes were strewn over the grounds as a foundation for the line, and over the top were placed several loads of stone chippings. Then came the sleepers, and afterwards the line itself.
 

Mr. Mitchell has two engines, one of which he built entirely himself. His workshop adjoins the house, and the clever mechanic spends most of his time in the former. It was there that he divulged to our representative his latest idea for perfecting his miniature railway. He explained that the engine consumed and enormous amount of water when travelling along the track. At present the eater supply is obtained from a tank in the tender. When that is used up, the journey comes to an abrupt termination.
 

"I intend," said Mr. Mitchell, "to overcome that difficulty by constructing a water feed along the track, and so enable the engine to pick up its own supply of water as it travels "along"
 

[Article Illustrated by four photographs "1. One of Mr. Mitchell's engines. 2. The signal-box. 3. Engine emerging from tunnel; some idea of the size of the engine may be gained by comparison with the driver. 4. Precious freight. Photo and Block: Leng, Ltd.]

5th November 1910 Sheffield Evening Telegraph (page 5)
A Sheffield Model Railway
The current issue of "Model Railways" contains a detailed account, with many illustrations, of Mr. Guy Mitchell's wonderfully complete model railway at Brook House, Totley. This was described and pictured in a recent issue of the "Sheffield Daily Telegraph." The model railway is nearly 1,000 feet long and is complete in every detail, and has even a tunnel 25 yards long, properly built with brick lining. Other local model railways are to be described in future issues of this interesting little magazine.

Thursday, 28th March 1918 Sheffield Evening Telegraph
Obituaries
MITCHELL. - On March 27th inst. at Brook House, Totley Rise, Guy Samuel, the dearly beloved husband of Lilian E. Mitchell, and only son of the late Dr. Mitchell, of Sharrow, aged 35.