Fawley.
The railway and museum at Fawley are part of Sir William McAlpine’s private collection of artefacts collected from all over the country and as such they are not open to the public except for invited groups of railway enthusiasts.
The railway itself runs for 2 miles in the grounds of Sir William’s stud farm (breeding Llama, Emu, Deer, Peacocks and even Zebra and Wallabies) and includes a formidable gradient of 1 in 14, up to the main station.
Needless to say with a background in the construction industry some of the hard landscaping in the park is superb and includes two of the arches removed from Waterloo during the construction of the Eurotunnel terminal, the capital from the north side of Blackfriars Bridge and parts of the facade from both Ludgate Hill and Broad Street Stations. Buildings include the station building from Somersham (GER), Shobnall Maltings signal box (MR), and the waiting shelters from both Bourne End (GWR) and Thrapston (LNWR).
The passenger train service is usually formed of a ‘shark’ Ballast brake van and a GWR 5 plank open wagon propelled by Hudswell Clarke 0-6-0 saddle tank that was delivered new to Robert McAlpine & Sons in 1913 and which was used in the construction of amongst others Wembley Stadium (1923-1924) and RAF Boscome Down (1944).
