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.
March Update
At long, long, last, we have received the news that we have been waiting for. Our resident steam engine, 0-6-0ST No.31, has been signed off by the insurer's inspector and can now be steamed again. Test running will start in the yard at Didcot to check that everything is functioning correctly. We are now trying to identify a date when she will be transported to Fawley Hill. Photographs of No 31 being tested will appear on the web-site shortly.
Replacement of the track between the signal box and Somersham station is now substantially complete. Test trains are being run over the new trackwork in anticipation of our Volunteers Training Days at the end of the month. This has been a huge effort by those involved Progress photos continue to be posted on the Images of Fawley page as things change as well as on our Instagram site.
Our Class 03 diesel had a trip to the GWR depot at St Philip's Marsh, Bristol at the end of February where the wheels were machined on their lathe to ensure the correct tyre profiles. It was an extremely interesting visit for the volunteers who accompanied the loco. Images of this have been added to the Our Locomotives page and our Instagram site.
We are already receiving a lot of enquiries and bookings for our programme of events for next year. 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.
