Railway Blogs

The miniature railway will be holding its annual Open Track weekend Sat 12th/ Sun 13th October.

We have invited all the societies in Scotland and the North of England to visit Strathaven over this weekend. At present we know of at least 20 visitors who will attend with several locomotives over these two days. During the weekend there will be several locomotives on track from late morning till dusk, unless the pesky weather cuts our day short.

Please note that NO PUBLIC RIDES will be given but all are welcome to view this gathering from the footpath.

From all of us at the Wee Train

It’s your LAST CHANCE to have a ride on the Miniature Railway for 2024.

We will be open over the three days of the September weekend weather permitting, 11:00 am till 16:30 pm.

If we have enough volunteers we would hope to have one of our steam locomotives on duty over the weekend

From all of us at The Wee Train

With just 10 days till the end 🔚 of the season, if you are looking to still have a ride 🛤️ on our trains before the season end, which is the September weekend, please 🙏 visit us soon. 

If the weather is better this weekend 🤞🏻 we will try and have a steam engine (Eva) ready for passengers on Saturday afternoon. 

From all of us at the Wee Trains🚂🚂🚂

We are sorry to hear the Strathaven Balloon Festival has been cancelled due to the weather. It takes a lot of work and effort to organise but an understandable decision.

We will no longer be running trains this Friday evening.

We will attempt to run our ‘normal’ weekend opening of Sat & Sun 11-4.30 but will be weather dependent as usual.

From a sad but understanding ‘Wee Train’

With only 11 days to go to the busiest weekend of the calendar year for Strathaven Park the countdown has started for the annual Balloon Festival.

This year Strathaven Balloon Festival will be held over the following dates – Fri 23rd August late afternoon and early evening and then all day Sat 24th and Sun 25th August.

The railway will run during these days from Friday 4pm to 8pm, Saturday 9am to 9pm , Sun 9am to 8pm, weather permitting, on each of these days.

Here is a link to the Balloon Festival website which will tell you all you need to know about the festival

https://www.strathavenballoonfestival.co.uk/

This will give you all the information you require regarding event times, parking, stalls etc.

From all of us at the Wee Train 🚂

Our annual junior fun 😁 day took place on Wednesday 7th Aug.
We had quizzes, snack lunches and driving sessions of our battery operated locomotives 🚂.
We presented awards 🎖️ for different skills shown on the day.

Thank you to all the volunteers 🙏 who assisted in making this gathering go so well.

Congratulations 🎉 to all the juniors who attended today and thank you to all the parents/grandparents that supported those attending .

We planted many Beech trees 🌳🌳🌳 several years ago with the hope of making a tunnel once they reached the correct height.
As the trees are now reaching a useful height, over the last few weeks, Tom & Graham and others have been creating 💪🏻 a support structure which will allow the trees to be shaped into a tunnel shape over the next few years.
The plastic hoop structure is reinforced with steel rods and will support the trees as, over time, they are pulled into the required shape.

In the near future this will give us a very interesting back straight with the green steel tunnel entrance leading into the mixed coloured live tree tunnel.  It already looks pretty enticing.

Thank you 🙏 to everyone involved, including Cairnhill for the donation of the hoop reinforcing steel rods.

See you hooting 📯in the tunnels soon 🛤️

From all of us at the Wee Trains 🚂

In late June we held a charity day in aid of the Kilbryde Hospice in East Kilbride. We collected just under £700 on the day 💷.

We arranged this in conjuction with Provost Margaret Cooper who is aiming to raise a significant sum for the hospice this year.

On Thursday 11th July we were honoured to have the Lord Lieutenant Lady Haughy with one of her deputies, the Provost and a representative of the Hospice come to the park.
We were there delighted to present the cheque to the Hospice’s fundraising manager.

A big thank you to all the volunteers who collected the money on our passenger hauling day.

From all of us at the Wee Train

A huge thank you 🙏 to all who visited and rode on the railway on Saturday, 22nd June.
It was also our charity day with all monies being donated to the Kilbryde Hospice in East Kilbride, the nominated charity of our Provost Margaret Cooper.

Just over £600 was raised on the day 💪🏻 and will be presented to them later this year.

A massive round of applause 👏🏻 to our volunteers who operated the railway on the day and collected this fantastic amount .

We also wish to thank the Depute Lord Lieutenant David Russell and Margaret Cooper, our local Provost, for helping us to celebrate 🎉 the 75th Anniversary 🛞 of Strathaven Miniature Railway 🛤️ and the 50th of the Strathaven Model Society, both at the Park and at the Strathaven Hotel.

Thank you to Les Hoggan Photography for some of the photos and the Tudor coffee house for the cake 🍰.

From all of us at The Wee Train

The 75th Anniversary of Strathaven Miniature Railway and 50 years of the Strathaven Model Society will be celebrated today, Saturday 22nd of June, with a civic reception at the park

Passenger hauling will be suspended for approx. 1 hour (from 12.40pm) while the visit of the Depute Lord Lieutenant and our local Provost, who are recognising the work of volunteers and the Railway over these many years, takes place.

Margaret (the original wee train) will be in steam for this celebration and will pull a special train of invited guests.

Thereafter normal running will recommence after our guests depart.

From all of us at the Wee Trains