Choo Choo - off to Didcot Railway Centre we go

Choo Choo – off to Didcot Railway Centre we go

It’s Bank Holiday Monday and the sun is shining!  We love Steam Trains in this house as we discussed in a previous post.  So today we decided to visit Didcot Railway Centre, being a Bank Holiday weekend it was going to be a Gala Weekend with lots of running steam trains.

Didcot Railway Centre

There is a large pay and display car park near the centre that you get directed to – £6.20 was a bit of a sting though!  There is then a large up and over railway bridge to negotiate (if you were bringing a buggy/pram, you would definitely need 2 of you to get it up and over).  You actually enter the centre through Didcot Parkway Railway Station subway.  There was a car park on the other side of the road, so that might be a better option for families with small children.

We paid £12.00 each per adult and £10.00 for my son.  The charges do vary depending on what kind of event is running.  As I mentioned, this weekend was a full steam gala, so I believe it was at the top end regarding pricing.  I did notice that they do family discounts for 2 adults and 2 kids – I hate that!  Can we not classify as a family when there are and only ever will be 3 of us?  Anyway, a little detail.

Choo Choo - off to Didcot Railway Centre we go

We did have a wonderful day, there were a number of steam trains running, so we made the most of the trips from one end of the centre to the other.  There was a little miniature railway that you could ride on (a short up and down track) but my son and Daddy P loved it.  There were also lots of static displays, a large engine shed with lots of loco’s to visit.

http://www.fiesa.org/

We had a trip on a Steam Railmotor 93 that was used to take passengers to the London Olympics in 1908.

As the Centre is right next to the mainline railway, you get an added bonus.  We saw lots of high-speed, normal trains and freight trains for no extra charge!

There is a lovely picnic area near a turntable and static displays.  We were busy munching on our lunch when one of the steam trains went right by us – it was wonderful.

There is a cafe area, should you want food, we just bought a couple of drinks for a pit stop in the afternoon.  We did walk around the GWT Museum, there were some really interesting exhibits and plenty to keep even my son entertained.

All in all, we had a lovely day out in the sun watching the trains go by.

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