Railway Blogs

Strathaven Miniature Railway will be running on Saturday the 2nd of November.
This will take place around 5pm till 9pm depending on the weather on the night.
This is our last outing for the railway in 2024.

The Strathaven Round table will be putting on their annual Bonfire and Firework display on the night.

Please see their website and facebook pages for the details and tickets for their display. https://www.tickettailor.com/…/strathavenroundt…/1395681

Depending on the weather we will have fairy lights around part of the track and tunnel.

A big thank you to the volunteers who will operate the railway on the night.

Donations for train rides taken at the gate to the railway.

Thank you

From all of us at the ‘Wee Train’

A big thank you to all the club members and our visitors over the two days of our open track weekend (12th and 13th of October).

A good time 😁 was had by all even when the weather was against us on Saturday 🌦️. Plenty of banter, good food 🍴 and the occasional steam engine running on our tracks made up for that though, especially as the Sunday turned out grand 🌞.
We must thank the Tudor Coffee House https://www.tudorcoffeehouse.co.uk/ for providing and serving all the food for lunch at the sports pavilion. Great feedback from all who attended the weekend regards the catering 🙌🏻.
Angus provided filled rolls 😋 on both days for the early arrivals at the park and was much appreciated by all 🙏.

Thank you to all who provided photographs 📷 of the weekend, special mention to Ruth Allan, the photographer who took many of the pictures below, and Neil Arlott who took the drone footage 📹 on visible on our FB page https://www.facebook.com/reel/781648574027476.

Our last running day of this season will be the Guy Fawkes night 🎆on the 2nd of November along with the Firework display put on by the Rotary of Strathaven.

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 🚂