The Comet - Special Needs Vehicle

The Comet

Our specialist railway vehicle is made to seat walking disabled and carry wheel chair bound disabled people on the 7¼" gauge track at the Malden and District Society of Model Engineers railway at Thames Ditton. For many years there has been a desire to provide facilities for people with disability on the miniature railway at Thames Ditton. With a track gauge of only 7¼" (184 mm), the safe handling of wheelchairs and also walking passengers presented a challenge. So, such a vehicle was going to be an entirely custom effort for design and build. This is widely accepted to be the narrowest gauge that it is feasible to make such a vehicle for general public use.

The maximum wheel chair width that can be accommodated is 650mm - or 25½ inches

The Comet

Vechile details

This vehicle was named "The Comet" by The Worshipful Mayor of the Borough of Elmbridge, Councilor James Vickers on Easter Sunday, 4th April 2010 in recognition of the support given by the Surrey Comet Newspaper and the Gannet Foundation Charity.

Unlike fairground rides, miniature railways like ours operate just like a small full sized railway, but with oversized loads (you). So many safety techniques for fairgrounds cannot be replicated.

Members who are wheel chair bound have never been able to see much of the site as it is only accessible by train. Many members of the public have never been able to ride the trains as no vehicle was suitable to carry them safely.

It has not been common practice to provide suitable vehicles on railways of this gauge because of practical limitations of scale and size.

There have only been a few attempts worldwide to provide such a vehicle on this size railway. Although some other organisations have being able to make vehicles for the disabled on this gauge, none were been prepared to share their designs.