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.
February Update
Welcome to the latest web-site update; the first of 2025.
Our volunteers are working hard making up for the lost time caused by the extremely wet weather over the winter. This has made the valley area extremely waterlogged and difficult to access but we are now trying to catch up on the maintenance activities in time for our pre-season training days.
Our Class 08 diesel shunter, D2120 has been undergoing winter repairs with the overhaul of the fuel pump and the air compressor. Performance has been noticeably improved.
The overhaul of our resident steam engine, No. 31, is proceeding well at Didcot Railway Centre, and we expect to have her back in the spring. Although we cannot guarantee steam haulage on any particular day for obvious technical reasons, we are planning to have a steam engine in operation at each of our Invitation Days throughout the year.
We continue to see a lot of interest for our programme of weekend Invitation Days for 2025 and some dates are becoming full. 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. please contact us through the e-mail address on our Volunteering page or by using the contact form at the bottom of the page.
Bambi, our very special and (almost) tame deer died naturally following a leg injury in October.
RIP little one.
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.
