Fawley Museum
Welcome to the Fawley Museum website.
Fawley Museum is a private museum established in the 1960s by the late Sir William McAlpine at his estate near Henley on Thames. It hosts a fine collection of memorabilia and models relating to railways and other forms of transport together with a working standard gauge railway operating on the steepest gradient in the country.
Since its inception, the railway and museum have grown steadily with artefacts and buildings arriving from locations all around the the country. Many buildings have been rescued and reassembled at Fawley Hill to save them from demolition, creating a unique urban landscape in a country estate. More detail of this can be found at our History of the Railway page.
The museum includes a wide range of interesting and unusual transport artefacts which will appeal to visitors of all ages. The park contains a variety of animals including rheas, peacocks, wallabies and many species of deer. The museum and railway are open on a limited number of days during the year and admission is only by prior application and invitation.
Capacity is limited and tickets are not available on the day. For more information, please visit our Events page.
April Update
Our 2026 season has kicked off with our Volunteers’ training day at the end of March. This was followed by our first Invitation Day on 12th April. Apart from a brief light shower, we were blessed with good weather which allowed the array of visiting Triumph and MG sports cars to put their tops down. Take a look at these on our Visiting Motoring Clubs page.
Our steam locomotive, No 31, is still at Didcot where she is currently running in. This is an essential exercise before she tackles the 1 in 13 hill at Fawley. Any teething issues that arise are being resolved prior to her return to Fawley, which is rumoured to be at the beginning of May. In the meantime, you can see here performing on the Demonstration in the update to the Our Locomotives page.
In the meantime, our heritage Class 03, D2021, has been performing and can also be seen in action on the Our Locomotives page. More videos can be seen on our Instagram site; just search for fawleyhillrailway
In 2026, we will be hosting the same number of Invitation Days (seven) as 2025, and we have started contacting applicants with the available dates. If you are not yet on our mailing list and would like tickets, please contact us through the e-mail address on our Events page or by using the contact form at the bottom of the page.
If you would like to join us a volunteer, we would love to hear from you. There is a wide range of activities open to newcomers, both on the railway and in the Museum, and rail-related experience is not necessary (but it is welcome). Please contact us through the e-mail address on our Volunteering page or by using the contact form at the bottom of the page.
We look forward to seeing you at Fawley soon.
Our enthusiastic and knowledgeable volunteers look forward to welcoming you to Fawley Museum soon.
Details about the Fawley Hill Estate can be found at www.fawleyhill.co.uk
We hope that you enjoy browsing the pages of the web-site. If you have any comments or questions, please get in touch using the contact form at the bottom of each web-page.
