Come along and take a 50-minute steam-hauled return trip along our 4 miles of 15" narrow gauge railway.

Our large visitor centre offers facilities for the whole family, including a café, souvenir shop, a new adventure playground, an indoor play area and a miniature railway.

We had an absolutely brilliant day out.  Our train-mad 2 ∏ year old was completely amazed by it all.  At the home end, there is a nice park, cafe, shop and miniature railway.  It was all nicely laid out, clean friendly and reasonably priced (the miniature railway was 50p a go).  The journey on the train was good fun – 25 minutes each way.  It cost us £13 for two adults and two under 3’s which is a little pricey but it was worth it for the look on the kids faces, the fact that everything was so nicely done and that it is all staffed by volunteers (so the money is for the general running of the railway). It wasn’t too busy – we had a carriage to ourselves on the way out which was nice as well.

At the Shelley end, there is another nice park, 2 free bouncy castles, a burger van and a picnic area (including a covered area for rainy days).  We decided to walk to Shelley and catch a later train back – it’s a fair walk uphill but there was a nice garden centre with a cafe that we visited.

- Laura Harrison / August 09

http://www.kirkleeslightrailway.co.uk/