Thieves cause £20,000 worth of damage after ‘ripping’ metal track apart from beloved miniature railway

A beloved miniature railway in Bolton has been forced to close after thieves ‘ripped apart’ and stole the track - causing around £20,000 worth of damage in the process.

The miniature railway in Moss Bank Park has been a popular attraction for families since the 1970s, with volunteers and residents coming together throughout the pandemic to rebuild the track and get it back into action.

The half-mile railway, which volunteers say had just reopened eight weeks ago, was targeted by thieves on Friday morning (June 3) who stole aluminum metal tracks and caused further damage to the site.

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“We got a message on Friday morning to say that someone had stolen the track,” volunteer Tracey Stirling told the M.E.N. “I thought it was a joke at first, but someone has actually nicked the track. We think they’ve done it for the aluminum because they just took the metal and didn’t even go into the clubhouse or anything. They broke into one side of the storage underneath and stole the spare aluminum as well. They’ve totally wiped us out.”

Tracey said she was one of the volunteers to start working at the railway during the pandemic after Bob Sharples and Alfred Molyneux, once the sidekick to steeplejack Fred Dibnah, asked for people to help out in getting the attraction up and running again.

“Bob and Al have been there since the beginning and have worked so hard to get the railway back,” Tracey explained. “It’s taken two and a half years to get into a position where we could finally reopen. Everybody’s put a lot of work in - it might not have always been physical but everyone’s had an impact on getting things to where we were and now that’s