Ropley Miniature Railway

22/06/2026

Video from Day 2 of our Ropley Miniature Railway Steam Gala showing our own loco Ivor and Edmund Hannay from Hastings Miniature Railway top and tailing a return service past the top yard.

22/06/2026

Video from Day 2 of our Ropley Miniature Railway Steam Gala showing Edmund Hannay, from the Hastings Miniature Railway, and our own Ivor passing the top yard with an outbound service.

22/06/2026

Here, as promised, are some photos from Day 2 of our Ropley Miniature Railway Steam Gala. Edmund Hannay and our own Ivor made 44 trips and hauled 274 passengers between them. Our thanks are due to the South Downs Light Railway and to the Hastings Miniature Railway for bringing and crewing their fine locos throughout the event.

21/06/2026

Well thats our Ropley Miniature Railway Steam Gala over for this year, Here are some fine photos from yesterday taken by Alasdair. Enjoy.

More to follow taken today.

19/06/2026

The first of our visiting locos, Pulborough, arrived from the South Downs Light Railway on Wednesday. The second, Edmund Hannay, from the Hastings Miniature Railway will be arriving first thing Saturday morning. These, together with our own steam loco Ivor, will be in action this weekend for our annual Ropley Miniature Railway Steam Gala. So do please come along to sample these fine locos in action this weekend, Saturday 20th and Sunday 21st June. We do not charge for rides but do appreciate any donations that you make which go towards our maintenance and development costs to keep our railway running.

Our thanks are due to the South Downs Light and Hastings Miniature Railways for bringing their locos and supporting this event.

11/06/2026

https://watercressline.co.uk/visit-ropley-miniature-railways-steam-gala-20-21-june/

If you love the charm of miniature steam locomotives, mark your calendar for a delightful weekend at the Ropley Miniature Railway Steam Gala, taking place on

08/06/2026

It’s the Watercressline Retro Wheels and Rails event (https://watercressline.co.uk/special-days/retro-wheels-and-rails/) this coming weekend (13th and 14th June). We are running the miniature railway for both days of this event. Our steam loco Ivor will be on display on Saturday and hopefully in operation on Sunday. So why not come and join in the fun? Hope to see you there!

31/05/2026

Well that’s a wrap for this Watercressline DOWT event! The word wrap conjures up ideas of movie making and got me wondering what sorts of movies would our little railway make. Maybe a disaster movie, “The Day the Track Moved!”. Or perhaps a romance with Scarlet being the obvious heart throb. Then again possibly a sci-fi, “Close Encounters of the RMR Kind”. Or even a wartime drama “From Here to Four Acre Field”. I’m sure our reader can suggest a few more titles.

However, I digress, back to more mundane matters. We carried 739 passengers today during 50 trips made and followed the usual pattern of loco changes namely Class 67 Scarlet, Uncle Jim, Patricia and 47834 Jerry Lee. Jerry Lee required some remedial work this morning to rectify a non functioning radiator fan and worn out control valve.

For those sad ones amongst you that are interested in statistics, the obvious highlight of this blog now follows. The rest of you can turn off now! The final numbers are in, and during this event we carried a total of 5765 passengers during 435 trips made. So the average number of passengers per trip was 13.25. This is fascinating isn’t it!! Our line is approximately 500m long so a round trip is 1km. Now even I can do the maths! Our little train travelled a total of 435km or 270 miles during this event, which equates to a single trip from Ropley to Carnforth (for a brief encounter with another film title perhaps?). Which is where I must leave you, dear reader, wandering aimlessly around the streets of Carnforth until picked up by the authorities (sounds painful!). Until next time, bye for now.

PS it would be remiss of me not to add a few thank yous. Firstly, to all that travelled with us, we hope you enjoyed your rides. And particular thanks to those of you that kindly donated. Our continued railway operation is dependant on donations so we are very grateful for these. Secondly, to the Watercressline line for hosting us here and all their support. Thirdly, and most importantly, to all of our volunteers who give up their spare time to operate, maintain and improve this railway. We are run exclusively by volunteers and without them none of this would be possible. Thank you one and all!

30/05/2026

So, we made it through the penultimate day of this Watercressline DOWT event, which was another scorcher. Once again we shared the haulage duties between Class 67 Scarlet, Uncle Jim, Patricia and thunderbird loco 47834 Jerry Lee, with 3 coaches in use throughout. And what a busy day it was, we virtually never stopped and undertook 58 trips during which we carried 905 passengers.

Last day tomorrow, let’s hope for more of the same!

The photo by Alasdair shows Richard in Patricia heading towards the Top Yard with an outbound service.