A day at the Buckinghamshire Railway Centre Aylesbury {exploring our local area}

Earlier this year we enjoyed a day out exploring a little further afield than normal. We all love heritage railways so visited the Buckinghamshire Railway Centre at Aylesbury. It is a railway museum based at the old Quainton Road railway station, about 5 miles west of Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire. The site is divided into two halves which are joined by two foot-bridges. Each side has a demonstration line with various workshop buildings as well as museum buildings.

It is a great place to visit with something always going on. When we arrived and bought our tickets we explored the glass-roofed visitor centre which is actually the former Oxford Rewley Road station building. It housed some beautiful old trains, such as the Royal Dining coach from 1901, as well as a cafe, shop and toilets. On the day we visited there was a special model railway display which the children loved.

Then we explored outside. You could easily spend all day here as they have one of the UK’s largest collections of locomotives, rolling stock and railway memorabilia – there is so much to see and do. We loved seeing all the different trains and carriages. There was an historic footbridge, Signal Box and Travelling Post Office too.

It’s a working Steam Museum and we all enjoyed getting really close to some of the vintage steam trains, especially when they were letting off steam! It was amazing being able to walk through the steam – although a little wet and dirty too 🙂

Of course we were all keen to take a ride on a steam train and I think the only downside was that steam train ride was so short. At the moment you can only ride for a 1/3 mile which is never long enough for us. There was still lots to look at and we loved looking in the restoration sheds.

We walked along to the ride-on miniature steam railway, there was an extra charge for this, but the track was really long so it was definitely worth the money. There are loads of toys dotted along the track which kept the children entertained.

Then we walked back to the museum with restored exhibits including trains, ticket office and shop. We were beginning to feel pretty tired as we had been out for hours but everything looked so interesting that we kept losing my husband in different buildings.

I’m sure we’ll go back at some point as there was too much to read and do. Buckinghamshire Railway Centre hold Steaming Days, Static Days and lots of Special Events so I’m hoping we’ll be able to again soon. Find out more here.