Discovery Days
Schedule
Thu May 28 2026 at 10:30 am to 04:00 pm
UTC+01:00Location
Didcot Railway Centre | Didcot, EN
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Travel back in time to the golden age of the Great Western Railway and savour the sights, sounds and smells of steam as you explore this 21-acre living museum with trains dating from Victorian times to the 1960s.Explore this 21-acre living museum and unearth almost two centuries of railway history. Trains will not be running, meaning there's the chance to get up close and see them at close quarters. Pick up our colourful Centre Guide and stroll through the original 1932 Engine Shed and see magnificent preserved locomotives – find 5900 Hinderton Hall, climb onto the footplate and listen to Archie, the driver, and Stan, the fireman, prepare their loco! Listen out for the sounds of a working engine shed and see if you can hear Stan fetch his supplies from Jonah, the storeman.
On a Discovery Day, you can expect to see everything open as usual. Our restaurant, shop and museum welcome visitors and the engine shed displays, carriage and wagon, signalling centre, museum and transfer shed are all accesible. Some of our visitors actually prefer to visit when it’s quieter. There’s definitely more time to take in the splendour of the engines and time to soak in the surroundings.
Sometimes you’ll be lucky enough to see us performing shunting moves as we do move our stock around regularly. There’s always a programme of work to be done in our locomotive works and elsewhere and occasionally a large shunt takes place, meaning you can see some of these projects in the open air. You can even sometimes see steam tests taking place.
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Where is it happening?
Didcot Railway Centre, Didcot Parkway Station,Didcot, Oxfordshire, United KingdomEvent Location & Nearby Stays:
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