Railway Blogs

There is a busy weekend ahead if the weather stays fair for us. Saturday is the FIRST Farmers Market which will be held in the park opposite the railway around the band stand area. This is the first of a monthly market which will be held on the third Saturday of each month and they plan to be open from 10am until 3pm. We will be open on Saturday from 11.30am until 4.30pm which is a slightly later opening time for us.

Sunday is Fathers Day and we hope to see families, especially dads, at the railway with opening times from 11am to 4.30pm.

Looking forward to seeing regular and new visitors over the weekend at the railway.

Thank you

From The Wee Train 🚂🚂

Saturday 13th June Gala Day

We will be open to passengers from 11am to 6pm depending on weather and the amount of people in the park. It is our intention to run a steam locomotive. Guess which one it will be (Margaret or Eva).

On Sunday 14th we will be open as normal (11-4.30).

Thank you to all who support the railway in the park.

From the Week train 🚂

The Wee Trains will be running on Monday 8th June for the Duck Race from around 5 to 8pm (weather permitting)

🚂 🦆🚂🦆🚂🦆🚂🦆

A new venture will start in Strathaven park in June.

There will be a farmers market to be held on Saturday the 20th of June, the market will be set up opposite us near the bandstand. They are planning to hold this market once a month on the third Saturday of each month from now on in the park. From 10am — 15.00pm.

On Monday 25th we will be open from 11am – 4.30pm.

We are hoping to have a steam loco running during the day along with our other train.

From all of us at the Wee Train  🚂

We reached a new milestone with our Black 5 locomotive this week. After an initial issue with one of the two safety valves and a quick bit of filing, the loco passed with flying colours. She only has one or two minor bits of work to be completed in the workshop and then she is ready for the park. 

Two injectors , one electric pump (instead of hand pump) were all tested.  The loco also has an axle pump but this cannot be tested during the stationary test.

We also received the two name plates for the running boards, see pictures below. ‘Covenanter’ will have these plates fitted in the next week or so, Mike has them home to paint and prepare them. The smoke box door number also arrived and you can also see the number on the cab side. 

5 for the month of May and 2026 for the year (52026), similar to Margaret’s 1949 on her cab.

Running in will take place over the summer before she can pull any passengers. All steam drivers will need  to be trained on this locomotive, more complex than both Margaret or Eva. 

Thank you ALL.

What a wonderful day was had at Strathaven Park yesterday . We celebrated the 77th anniversary and birthday of Margaret, our 2-6-0 locomotive.  A big thank you to all our visitors to the park who helped to make it a very special day.  We had several visiting locos which is always a great treat for all, along with our own locomotives running in the park. 

Thank you to the Tudor for providing the food on the day which was, as always, appreciated. Thanks to all the members who made it a great day for our visitors and thank you to Angus who was busy in the kitchen early on providing us with hot rolls to keep us going. 

We appreciated the Heron farm shop and kitchen (Emma ) for providing us with  a cake to celebrate the day.

Attached are just some of the many photographs from the day. 

Thank you all from The Wee Train now 77 years young. 🚂

On the 14th of May the Miniature Railway celebrates 77 years in the park.

We have invited friends from all the Scottish and North of England societies to join us in the celebration. We are expecting several visiting locomotives, along with our own trains.

Margaret our 2-6-0 loco will also celebrate her birthday tomorrow 🎂 (shhh! 77 years young). She will take pride of place in the cavalcade at 13.00hrs replicating the first day of running in 1949.

We are NOT OPEN to the public on this day but please come along and view our engines and visiting engines, which will be running throughout the day.

From the Birthday Girl (The Wee Train) 🚂

Thank you to all who visited the railway over the last three days. Saturday and Sunday were both very cold with unexpected heavy rain showers. In between the showers we had several families and groups come along to support the railway.

On Monday we had our best day so far this year with large numbers of new visitors along with many regulars out enjoying some spring sunshine. On two of the days we managed to run a steam locomotive – most of the afternoon on Saturday and Monday.

A BIG thank you to all the volunteers who manned the railway over these three days.

From all of us at the Wee Train

P.S. thank you to our visitor who shared the photo below.

Work continues in the workshop, with one of our steam locomotives, Cairnhill, passing both Hydraulic and steam testing.
A new fire grate was also fitted at this time. 

We also took delivery of a new Hydraulic table pictured below with Cairnhill sitting on the it.
This device will be used in the park to unload locomotives from members and visitors cars or trailers, making it easier 💪🏻 to access our track 🛤️

From all of us at the Wee Train 🚂