NARROW GAUGE ENIGMA - The story of Peter Rampton and his Collection 'X'

This book tells the remarkable story of Peter John Rampton. Bringing together information and photographs from Peter’s own private archives, together with interviews with people who knew and worked with and for Peter, the story of this very private and passionate collector of narrow gauge locomotives is described in detail.

Born in 1934, Peter Rampton grew up in a family which had founded the successful Freemans mail order business. After a few years working in the family business, Peter changed career in the early 1960s and became a farmer, running three large farms in Surrey. He began collecting narrow gauge locomotives in 1968 and added to the collection until he died in 2019.

He was instrumental in establishing the Brecon Mountain Railway with Tony Hills, and in buying the Vale of Rheidol Railway from British Rail in 1989.

Peter bought his first engine in 1968 in France, and from then on a steady stream of engines arrived from France, Spain, India and other countries, many originally exported from the UK and all of 2 foot or 2'6" gauges. Being a very private man, Peter stored all the engines in barns on his Sussex farms, where they became the mysterious "Collection X", although that name didn't come from him. 

When Peter died the collection numbered 34 or so locomotives, some having been traded on or donated in the meantime, plus much more, including some 3' gauge IOM coached. All of these items have been drawn in considerable scale detail by Steven Phillips, who also assembled collections of photographs for most, technical details, as well as being responsible for the greater part of the book's text.

As well as his passion for railways, Peter also collected and restored AC Cars and  while all this was happening found time to restore ‘Markwick’, his early 16th century Surrey hall house, a labour of love.

This book forms a complete record of Peter Rampton's collection, and details the life of this unique, enigmatic and very private man. This is a a book of considerable size (413 A4 size pages) and weight (2.4kgs). and huge numbers of B&W and colour illustrations, and the drawings of the locomotives.

It is a book that anyone interested in the 2 foot or 2 foot 6 inches gauges should have, notwithstanding the price. There is enough information, good reading  and quality  in this volume to justify the price any day!