Whitwell and Reepham Railway Station is holding a four-day celebration including a beer festival to mark 15 years of its reopening as a heritage railway, with festivities running from 10 am – 4 pm on two weekends: 24–25 February and 2–3 March.
A guest Peckett & Sons locomotive is to visit Whitwell and Reepham Railway Station. Photo: Buckinghamshire Railway Centre
The celebrations will commemorate 65 years since the closure of the original Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway network, which operated through the station until its closure in 1959.
The station reopened in 2009 after it was bought by Hellesdon businessman Mike Urry, nearly 50 years after it was closed to passengers.
The anniversary gala will feature the station’s regular steam engine, Agecroft, and other rolling stock, as well as a guest Peckett & Sons locomotive visiting from Buckinghamshire Railway Centre.
The visiting engine, May, shares a history with one of Whitwell’s own engines, Annie, having both worked at the Yates Duxbury paper mill.
Visitors can enjoy passenger rides, demonstration goods trains, a model railway exhibition on the first weekend, craft stalls and traders on the second weekend, and a beer festival running throughout the event.
Food and drink will be available at The Siding bar and restaurant. Tickets are available in advance HERE.
Lesley Turner, events manager at the station, said: “We’re really proud of how far the station has come in the past 15 years and want to showcase all the fantastic work that has been done here to restore the station and track to a destination that visitors love.
“We’re really looking forward to two weekends of full-on steam entertainment.”