Kirklees Light Railway

Audley End went the same way as well sadly.

 

I'm an enthusiast with young kids so Perrygrove is the perfect destination for me. I get my steam fix and they get to have a play and aren't stuck on a train for hours. Even without the Heywood stuff, the line still feels very much like an estate railway.
The main difference between Perrygrove and Whistlestop valley is that Perrygrove retains the word railway in the title so people know what to expect. Whistlestop valley doesn't tell me anything, it could be a soft play centre for all I know. The fact it's a substantial 15" gauge railway isn't obvious.

 

Where is the Heywood collection based now?

 

https://www.stationroadsteam.com/topic/heywoodcollection/

 

Yup, but once Lord B passed away, it was no longer his personal railway which he happened to open to the public, it had to stand on it's own two feet as a commercial railway - and lots of families with young children generates more income than smaller numbers of enthusiasts. (I believe that AEMR has been achieving visitor figures around the 100K per year mark, even during the pandemic!)

 

I do find the rebranding at Kirklees a bit strange- we are relatively local and the Railway has/had a good reputation and reasonable branding and recognition.

I think they run a risk of diluting the image they had- I hope I'm wrong and its a success but it does seem a bit of a high roller.

Chris

 

I'd agree that the line retains its charm and manages to maintain most of its Estate Railway operation and influences (they still run the Estate Railway experience, if I remember correctly...), it's more that I was disappointed that the Heywood Collection is now no longer on public display, which was what drew me to Perrygrove in the first place (I must admit, of course, that Heywoodian enthusiasts like myself were never really the main target audience in the first place).

 

Featuring Fox, Badger, Jay, Hawk, Sian, No7 - home fleet

Guests: Bonnie Dundee, Muffin and Zebedee

Timetable/roster on Whistlestop Facebook page and below hopefully

 

Finally made my first visit to the Kirklees Light Railway encouraged by news that Guest Engineering 2-4-2 Katie had been released after a lengthy overhaul and was set to work with sister locomotive Sian. The line was a splendid experience with a lengthy run of 3 miles; images attached

 

Glad you enjoyed your visit....a splendid, well run railway....

 

Duplicate, see below.

 

"The Friends of Kirklees Light Railway will be hosting their annual Steam & Diesel Gala Weekend on 6th & 7th September 2025"

Visiting locos:

Mr Hallworth & Spirit of Adventure from Perrygrove Railway

Mark Timothy from Bure Valley Railway

Timetable/roster available late Friday.

• Day Ticket Prices Adult: £14.95 Weekend Ticket Prices Adult: £27.50

 

The railway have advised that home fleet locos: Katie, Sian, Badger, Hawk, Jay and Tram will be operating.

Owl on static display awaiting overhaul, Fox in the workshops for boiler attention.

 

It is after 20:00 and in the usual style for this odd railway - zero information, not even an outline timetable, same each year.........

 

Timetables now posted on the Whistlestop valley facebook page (though even then only in the comments, no specific post about it!) Facebook

 

Visited yesterday, very quiet, heard staff talking that it had been poorly marketed.

Blood out of a stone comes to mind each year with getting a timetable/roster.

Seemed to more staff than passengers at times sadly.

Trains ran as booked, with the exception that the 1337 shuttle was cancelled to improve late running.

Then we had an alteration, Hawk piloting Mark Timothy on 1700 ex Clayton West as far as Skelmanthorpe, returning on the rear of the 1700 ex Shelley with Badger.

Other odd thing is the poor offering in the large café, with bacon sandwiches being for the exclusive consumption by the footplate crews and none available to the public!

Strange place, perhaps the commercial success of this weekend is irrelevant and paid for by the normal operations over the 12 months.

 

Yeah, I would echo some of those thoughts. Visited with my son for the second time, the first being a Monday in the Easter holidays. I couldn't honestly say yesterday was much better attended despite the obviously dramatically more intensive train service. We had a really good time thanks to the friendly staff and the fact that it's basically the perfect day out for an enthusiast parent with a train mad small child. The nature of going with a kid meant the lack of advance info wasn't a great issue for me, but I can't imagine it helped to attract others to the event.

 

Interesting reading. I've always been fascinated by the Kirklees and keen to visit, as I do love 15inch lines and this gala has always looked so much fun and very quirky and inventive. But it's a four-hour each way drive for me (which I don't mind doing as an out and back in a day for somewhere I'm keen to go, but it does make me slightly more selective) and there are always so many clashes in September - plus I don't like being too far from home on the first weekends of the school year when my family are all settling back in - so it tends to fall on a weekend when the bar is very high for a big trip and there are closer-to-home options that win out (including just staying at home with the kids!). A lack of an advance roster isn't a deal-breaker for somewhere where everything would be new to me anyway and I'm just keen to experience it all for the first time, but I'm less likely to think of prioritising an event that's not repeatedly nudging me in my social media feeds and the forums I visit.

I'd still love to make it to this event one year nevertheless, hopefully the reports of low numbers at this one don't imply I'll have missed my chance as though I'd still really like to sample it on a normal running day, the line-ups and timetables for these galas have always looked pretty special.