This 7+1⁄4 in (184 mm) gauge railway originated in 1946 when John Samuel started construction in the garden of his house, 'Greywood', on the Burwood Park estate at Walton-on-Thames.

Samuel's death in October 1962 threw the railway's future into doubt but the publisher, Ian Allan purchased the line and,[5] with the assistance of the GCR volunteers, moved it to its present site at Hardwick Lane, Chertsey.

[6] It houses a Tea Room and toilets, including disabled facilities, as well as the booking office and staff accommodation.

A gala day with visiting engines is held in September, and on the last Saturday in October Halloween is celebrated with night-time operation.

[7] Prototypical working with full track circuiting and accurate signalling remains the key to the railway's operation.

The boxes at Hardwick Central and Everglades Junction are fitted with Westinghouse 'L' type frames with, respectively, twenty-three and thirty-one miniature levers.

The smallest is an SR S14 while the largest are the 4-6-2 'Pacifics', the oldest being a freelance version built by Louis Shaw in 1927 and given the name 'Eureka' by Sir John Samuel in 1947 as he had found, in his opinion, the ideal engine for his railway.