Fawley Museum
Welcome to the Fawley Museum website.
Fawley Museum is a private museum established in the 1960s by the late Sir William McAlpine at his estate near Henley on Thames. It hosts a fine collection of memorabilia and models relating to railways and other forms of transport together with a working standard gauge railway operating on the steepest gradient in the country.
Since its inception, the railway and museum have grown steadily with artefacts and buildings arriving from locations all around the the country. Many buildings have been rescued and reassembled at Fawley Hill to save them from demolition, creating a unique urban landscape in a country estate. More detail of this can be found at our History of the Railway page.
The museum includes a wide range of interesting and unusual transport artefacts which will appeal to visitors of all ages. The park contains a variety of animals including rheas, peacocks, wallabies and many species of deer.
The museum and railway are open on a limited number of days during the year and admission is only by prior application and invitation. Capacity is limited and tickets are not available on the day. For more information, please visit our Events page.
Fawley Museum is run and staffed entirely by a group of friendly volunteers who undertake almost all of the necessary maintenance tasks associated with a working railway. If you would like to join our team and contribute to the day-to-day operation of the museum in a highly sociable environment, further information can be found on our Volunteering page. We have a need for a variety of skills so you don't have to be an expert on railways.
December Update;
Welcome to the latest web-site update.
Now that we have entered the fallow season, we have started some of the essential maintenance that is required to ensure that the railway runs sweetly next season and beyond. Following the replacement of life-expired sleepers in the valley during last winter, we have now commenced the replacement of similarly tired infrastructure in the station yard. The old timber sleepers are being replaced with concrete ones from our stock with the track being relevelled and re-gauged, as necessary. Some photos of our efforts can be seen on the Volunteering page.
You can now find us on Instagram (search for Fawley Hill Railway). Progress photos will (hopefully) be added throughout the winter as the work progresses.
We received some excellent news at the beginning of the month. Our resident loco, No.31 has passed it's hydraulic test at Didcot Railway Centre and will be undergoing its steam test shortly. Once re-assembled, she will be run in at Didcot before being returned to Fawley. Hopefully, there will be further details of this in the next update.
We are already receiving a lot of enquiries (and a number of bookings) for our programme of events for next year. We have decided that we will host the same number of Invitation Days as 2025, and we have started contacting applicants with the available dates. If you are not yet on our mailing list and would like tickets, please contact us through the e-mail address on our Events page or by using the contact form at the bottom of the page.
If you would like to join us a volunteer, we would love to hear from you. There is a wide range of activities open to newcomers, both on the railway and in the Museum, and rail-related experience is not necessary (but it is welcome). Please contact us through the e-mail address on our Volunteering page or by using the contact form at the bottom of the page.
Finally, thank you for your support during 2025. We wish you a happy and healthy Christmas and we look forward to seeing you at Fawley next year.
Our enthusiastic and knowledgeable volunteers look forward to welcoming you to Fawley Museum soon.
Details about the Fawley Hill Estate can be found at www.fawleyhill.co.uk
We hope that you enjoy browsing the pages of the web-site. If you have any comments or questions, please get in touch using the contact form at the bottom of each web-page.
