Ropley Miniature Railway

30/08/2026

Apologies, we won’t be running trains today or Bank Holiday Monday due to lack of volunteer availability.

22/08/2026

South Downs light railway ‘diesel and electric’ gala 22/08/2026. Our own Ajax, Class 67 Scarlet and 47834 Jerry Lee in Action. Video courtesy of James Green.

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17/08/2026

A video of the Hoddy Halt opening ceremony which I feel is a fitting tribute to Keith. Thanks to Brian Carter and Will Stratford for their efforts in producing this splendid record of the day.

15/08/2026

Today we officially opened Hoddy Halt. Keiths family were in attendance for the opening ceremony. His son Neil performed the honours. The family also kindly donated Keiths pride and joy, his loco Patricia, named after his wife, to the Ropley Miniature Railway.

We are grateful to the Hoddy family for the donation of Keiths loco and we will ensure that Patricia is looked after so that our visitors can enjoy it for many years to come.

We feel that both Hoddy Halt and Patricia are fitting memorials to a well respected and loved servant of both the Watercressline and the Ropley Miniature Railway.

13/08/2026

Ian’s first go at video of the eclipse. It’s a Timelapse made up of photos taken every 20 seconds at Hoddy Halt. He’s currently investigating how to stabilise it. Even so this first stab is very impressive!

2026 Partial solar eclipse timelapse taken at Hoddy's Halt on the R...

13/08/2026

So, spent our evening eclipse gazing at Hoddy Halt with a bunch of like minded idiots, err, I mean friends! Obviously too far to walk, so we just had to take the train. Would have been rude not to!

09/08/2026

Well we didn’t quite get up to yesterdays target but it was close run thing, 67 trips transported 961 passengers along our little railway. Lots of nice comments like “lovely ride” and “fantastic what you have done” plus lots of thank you’s from our customers today. We followed the usual format of Class 67 Scarlet starting, then Uncle Jim in the middle with Patricia bringing things to a close. Again our 3 car set was kept mostly fully loaded.

During the course of this 6 day event we have made 339 trips (which equates to 339km!) and carried 4949 passengers, quite an achievement for our little railway.

Also during this event we have been making preparations for the official opening of our new station in Four Acre Field, Hoddy Halt, next Saturday. We have also installed a new warning sign in Four Acre Field which was kindly supplied by the building group at Medstead.

Today we waved goodbye to three of our locos; 47834 Jerry Lee, Class 67 Scarlet and Ajax. All three are going to the South Downs Light Railway. Jerry Lee is on long term loan whilst the steam ban is in place. The other two will be at the SDLR for their Diesel Gala 22nd / 23rd August.

Many thanks to all who have travelled with us during this event, we hope you enjoyed your time with us. As ever, heartfelt thanks to all our volunteers, who give up so much of their spare time to operate, maintain and improve our Ropley Miniature Railway.

08/08/2026

Yesterday, you may recall dear reader, that we were hoping for a bumper weekend. Well today certainly lived up to expectations with 1059 passengers carried during the 55 trips made. One more day to go, can we top today’s figures? Doubtful but we will be giving it a go!

07/08/2026

What a day this the fourth day of DOWT proved to be. 70 trips made and 824 passengers carried! We followed the usual format of the Class 67 Scarlet starting proceedings followed by Uncle Jim, Patricia with Class 47 47834 Jerry Lee wrapping things up. Our 3 car set was heavily utilised today. Just two more days to go now and we are hoping for a bumper weekend!

06/08/2026

Day 3 of this Day Out With Thomas event brought us 708 passengers during the 44 trips made.

We have been blessed with quite a few positive comments of which the following is just one. A gentleman came into our station building to make a donation and he then shook my hand and said that he realises that we need donations to keep going and thanked us for doing a great job! It’s simple actions and comments like this that make it all so worthwhile.