Southwold Railway Trust

24/02/2026

First steps today to secure our own reliable water supply for our steam locomotives - the drilling of a borehole on the western end of our land. This ended up being 15m deep and had 10m of water present, a good sign! The drillers made the hole with a steel casing then lined it with plastic pipe, the lower 2 sections of which have 0.5mm slots cut in them to allow the water to enter. Once the liner is in place, the steel casing is removed then fine gravel is poured down to fill the gap. We now await the installation of the pump and the sampling of the resulting water.

20/02/2026

A team of volunteers worked on the rear of LM319 this week. The first two photos are before and after shots - almost a spot the difference! The task was to separate the coupling / buffer from the locomotive - just 4 nuts and bolts to undo! Multiple blasts of heat, penetrating oil and some large wrenches eventually got the nuts moving. Our next task is how to safely move the very heavy buffer block into storage!

06/02/2026

Despite the recent cold weather, we continue to work on Blyth, most recently on refitting the plumbing for the injectors following the move and increased size of feed water valve. Pictures here show the annealing of one of the pipes to ease it into position and a somewhat ghoulish view of the workers given the artificial lighting.
I did get somewhat excited when purchasing some additional munsen rings (pipe clips) which were labelled Tesla UK, the irony of having a major electric vehicle company supplying parts for our steam loco would have been lovely, however it seems Tesla UK Ltd are a distributor of plumbing products and are not associated with Tesla Motors Ltd :-(

22/01/2026

Despite the cold, grey day volunteers made progress on a track display for our museum and continued to fettle the braking system on Blyth.

01/01/2026

Following a succesful grant application to The Southwold Trust for part of the cost we are now actively fund raising towards the purchase of a carriage to enable us to give Steamworks visitors a ride on our 3ft gauge railway.

Donations towards this significant project can be made via crowdfunder here:-
www.crowdfunder.co.uk/a-carriage-for-southwold-railway

Thank you

Our aim is to recreate the old Southwold Railway, which closed in 1929, so that local residents can experience the thrills of steam railways

29/11/2025

Looking forward to our first attendance at the Southwold Christmas Light Switch On organised by Light Up Southwold. We will be playing Christmas music on our barrel organ and taking bookings for our Santa Specials which take place over the next two weekends. Hope to see you there!

10/11/2025

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03/11/2025

Our Santa Specials return this year on Saturday 6th and 13th December, our site will be open between 4pm and 7:30pm. Tickets to take the train to Santa Halt need to be booked in advance to confirm your departure time. Tickets cost £7 for adults and £10 for children, these include the ride on the steam hauled train, a drink and cake in our cafe and, for children, a gift from Santa. If you wish to extend your visit either before or after your Santa train experience there will be free Christmas crafts and a spot-the-elf activity.
Should you wish to make a booking, the best way to do so is by ringing the Trust at Steamworks on 01502 725422 - the phone is manned Tuesday-Friday 9:00 am until 5:30pm, and we’ll be happy to help you. Requests to book can be sent via email, but if you do so, please be sure to include a telephone number so we can contact you to confirm details.

30/09/2025

This Sunday, 5th October, sees the last of this years “First Sunday” open days at Steamworks, though we will be open during half term on Sunday 26th and again on 6th and 13th December for our Santa Specials.

The site will be open to visitors between 1pm and 4pm, the café will be open, the miniature railway running, the 3 ft gauge engines in the shed will be available for viewing and the shop and model railway display will be open.

In the car park we hope to be joined by a small group of enthusiasts with their stationary engines.

04/07/2025

At our open afternoon this Sunday we will have the additional attraction of a collection of stationary engines running. Our gates are open between 1pm and 4pm, entry to the site is free. We look forward to seeing you.

15/04/2025

This Sunday, Apr 20th, sees the first open afternoon of the 2025 season at Steamworks, giving you the opportunity to see our new loan diesel locomotive which swung onto our rails at the end of March. The site, cafe, shop, model railway display and miniature railway will all be open from 1pm to 4pm, we look forward to welcoming you.