Buckinghamshire Railway Centre – A fun day out for all the family!
Buckinghamshire Railway Centre is a working steam museum and heritage railway in Quainton, a small village in Buckinghamshire, between Bicester and Aylesbury. It occupies an extensive 25-acre site amid beautiful countryside, with its stunning, glass-roofed Visitor Centre taking centre stage. There’s also a large Railway Museum full of railway artefacts large and small!
During our open season (April-October), we open for Steaming Days every Sunday (plus bank holidays, and also most Wednesdays in the school holidays). Visitors can wander the large site and enjoy steam train rides, but that’s not all - there is so much to see and do! Exhibits range from large express passenger locomotives to the humble shunting engine, together with a host of smaller items recreating the golden age of steam.
We run lots of Special Events when we have something different on offer as well as our usual offering, for example, our popular Days Out With Thomas, other children’s character events (like Peppa Pig and, Paddington, Zog and PAW Patrol) Panto Express with Father Christmas and vehicles rallies and steam galas. We have two running lines, and on busier days, steam train rides are offered in our Down Yard as well as the usual Up Yard.
We have a popular Railway Café, gift shop and toilets inside our Visitor Centre. Our Miniature Railway, which is located at the far end of the site is hugely popular and runs on Sundays and Special Event days for £1.50 per person (under 3s are free). It runs along a 1km track which goes in a figure of eight through a wooded glen, and includes a level crossing and a tunnel, much to the delight of visitors young and old!
On static display inside our Visitor Centre, we have an LNWR Royal Diner of 1901, which has the finest interior of any carriage to survive from that era and is coupled to an LNWR sleeper of 1907 now in use as a Cinema Coach. Also, a few years ago, we received LNWR 2-2-2 tender loco no.3020 ‘Cornwall’ on loan from the National Railway Museum.
We also have a New York subway car which is the only one in the world that isn’t in America! It is currently being restored and converted to be used as an additional coffee shop.
We have locomotives and carriages from the later 1800s such as the Beattie well tank built in 1874, and Metropolitan Railway No.1, built in 1898, plus newer additions and diesel engines too. Our loco no.6989 ‘Wightwick Hall’ recently completed 40 years of restoration and is an absolutely stunning addition to our collection. She is regularly loaned out around the country to other heritage railways, so others can admire her.
Many railways have a cattle dock but ours is still believed to be the only one with a restored cattle wagon (and cow). The weighbridge hut tells its own story and how it fits into a country goods yard. As befits a goods yard we have an extensive collection of goods vehicles including one of the most complete "sets” of BR standard goods vehicles.
In the Buffer Depot Museum are a wide variety of interesting things waiting to be discovered from a Passimeter and a Post Office railway car to a BR(S) Horse Box and an American velocipede. We have been collecting since 1962 and have a large and diverse collection of the smaller items such as signs and plates, rule books and tin plate toys.
Buckinghamshire Railway Centre
Station Road
Quainton
Buckinghamshire
HP22 4BY
T: 01296 655720 E: office@bucksrailcentre.org W: www.bucksrailcentre.org
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*** Please be aware that due to the nature of steam railways where steam trains are operating there is always a risk of falling ash coming from the locomotive's chimney, which can be hot and burn ***