Steam on the Royal Victoria Railway

For those in the Southampton area there will be steam on the railway this afternoon. No 3 0-6-2 tank is being tested for the December Santa trains which will operate on 9th, 10th, 16th and 17th with either No. 3 or one of the other locos.

 

Shouldn't this be in the miniature rather than the narrow gauge section?

PH

 

Yup, as it's below 15" gauge.

 

Thanks Al. The Santa trains are all for pre booked travel only but the trains can be photographed on the one mile circuit. Peter and Helen at the railway would welcome donations from photographers and would be happy to show visitors the stock on normal running days which are all weekends and school holidays. Trains are usually hauled by one of the Western outline DH locos but the Santa trains are steam which also works trains on other selected days. I usually know in advance and will try to post here

 

@gricerdon or anyone else. Does anyone know when steam runs on The Royal Victoria Park railway? I looked on their website but can't see anything about steam days there. Today, after visiting the Eastleigh Lakeside Railway and having a ride behind 35004 "Cunard White Star" hauling 12 bogies, I decided to drive to Royal Victoria Park to look at the railway. I saw the last train running with a Western style diesel and that was the last train at 15:30 which seemed a bit early for a bank holiday as it was a nice sunny day and the park was quite full of people. According to the website, they have a couple of steam locos in ticket.

 

Very very rarely. I’ve been there loads of times and it has always been one of their Westerns in service. Look on their Facebook site and you may occasionally find an announcement of a steam loco being in service, but it’s very unusual.

As you found, Eastleigh Lakeside is the better railway to visit in the area if you want steam. You are almost guaranteed steam there.

On the subject of the RVR, does anyone know if there are any plans to open their extension? It’s seemingly been complete for years but never gets used.

 

Has the RVR bought themselves another Western? There seems to be a fourth one there undergoing a major overhaul, in addition to the usual three.