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DIDCOT RAILWAY CENTRE
Steam Trainspotting in Oxfordshire

An eccentric engineer with the unlikely name of Isambard Kingdom Brunel conceived of a railway which would carry first class Victorian era steamship passengers from Plymouth and Bristol to London in speed and style, and one of England’s grand unique rail lines was built, the Great Western Railway. Originally a 7 foot wide broad gauge track allowed for faster speeds behind Brunel’s now legendary “Firefly” steam engine in the 1840’s. The standard gauge won out, but the broadgage and the Firefly live on at the Didcot Railway Centre in southern Oxfordshire. The Didcot Rail Museum is a journey back into steam history while high speed modern trains roar passed a short distance away.

About an hour from London, the Didcot Centre has a wonderful collection of steam engines, one of the largest in the UK after the national msueum system (see York National Rail Museum) from grand Great Western Express “Castles” and “Manors” to smaller tank engines and a variety of period rolling stock on the 23 acre site laid otu as an old time station and switching yard. Used in many film and television productions the site has working signal boxes, a Science and Learning Center for the kids and on weekends and throughout the summer, offers steam train rides on a mix of the available trains, including the open coaches of the broad gauge replica Firefly, and the “driver for a fiver” chance to operate the throttles of an authentic operating steam engine. Steam days are Saturdays and Sundays May-September and Wednesdays in July-August. On special designated days, a “Thomas the Tank” engine is available for rides for children in love with the storybook and television character. (Apparently there are several of them that make the circuit around England to different sites.)

Didcot, the largest city in southern Oxfordshire is on the Great Western main rail line, halfway between Reading and Oxford, good for a stop if traveling by train from London. The historic property built around the original engine shed and turntable is connected by a tunnel to the current Didcot Parkway Rail Station and can be easily reached by rail from London or take the A34 motorway toward Oxford and get off at the Didcot exit - easily landmarked by the massive cooling towers of the Didcot power stations (voted the UK's third worst eyesore in 2003) and built on the site of WWII era Royal Army and Air Force bomb depots instrumental in the build-up to D-Day. You can actually get a free guided tour of the power station by appointment during the week if your interests lie in things technological.

But for those in love with the beauty of an earlier technology and the glorious grand days of steam rail, the Didcot Railway Centre is will worth your adventure in trainspotting. © Bargain Travel Europe

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Didcot Railway Centre
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SEE ALSO:

OXFORD
England’s Ye old College Town

SET YOUR WATCH ON THAMES TIME
From Big Ben to Greenwich Mean

BLENHEIM PALACE
Walk a mile in Winston Churchill’s slippers

LOCOMOTION NATIONAL RAILWAY MUSEUM SHILDON

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