2024 Steam Gala
On Saturday 15th and Sunday 16th June 2024 join us at our Steam Gala which will feature passenger and freight trains running a very intensive service from 11am until 5pm. Gates open at 8am for you to see the steam engines being lit up and prepared for the day ahead!
Featured Engines
Resident Bagnall “Isabel”
Resident Kerr, Stuart & Co. Wren “Lorna Doone”
Resident Kerr, Stuart & Co. Sirdar “Diana”
Resident Hunslet Wren “Jennie”
Special Guest Locomotive: Sir Tom from Threlkeld quarry and mining museum.
Special Guest Locomotive: Ogwen with kind permission of Martyn Ashworth.
Things to see and do
There will be an intensive service of freight and passenger trains all day and locomotives will be regularly swapped around to give you a chance to have rides and get photographs with all of the engines. There will be occasional double heading of engines to give everyone a bit of something different.
There will also be shed tours, where you can see our fleet of diesel engines and steam engines that are currently being maintained by our team of volunteers.
We open our gates at 08:00 on the morning of each day so you can join us in the yard to see our volunteers lighting up the locomotives and cleaning them in preparation for the day ahead, and sometimes cooking their breakfast on the shovel! Trains run all day until around 17:00.
Our field, yard, and Picnic Area will be open for you to explore and capture pictures of the train in our excellent countryside and field railway environments. To access the fields please travel on the train to Chartley Road and cross the track, please ensure you look both ways!
Waterhouses Signal Box
Our Waterhouses signal box is now in full use throughout our Steam Gala, and regrettably we are unable to offer tours at this event due to it being in heavy use in a safety critical role.
Steam Gala Ticket Prices
As you can imagine, our Steam Galas are a little more costly for our charity to run, due to this, our “single” tickets are only valid for 1 full circuit on the railway. This includes a trip up to the Picnic Area with the option of returning on a later train.
We feel the best way to experience our gala is with our day tickets, these enable you to travel all day, as many times as you like.
Day Tickets
You may be asked to relinquish your seat and re-join the queue after a trip during busy periods, don’t worry though you won’t be waiting long, we run around 30 passenger laps in a day!
Adult Day – £12.00
Child Day – £5.00
Single Tickets
If you’d only like to travel once, we still have a single ticket available
Adult Single – £4.00
Child Single – £3.00
In the case of events such as this, the locomotives are subject to their availability. Lots of these engines are very old (Isabel is 127 this year!), and as such require a lot of work, care, and attention to keep them going. In the event of a locomotive becoming unavailable, we will endeavour to update this page as soon as possible.