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Slough & Windsor Railway Society

Open Day

Saturday, 1st March 2025

The Society's meeting place 'The Manor', by Slough railway station, will be open to visitors between 10:00 and 16:00.

(Directions to The Manor)

Come along to have a chat, look inside the Victorian building, visit our museum, and see our exhibition model railway layouts: Slough Estates Sidings, and Taplow.

The club's model railway will be available for children (or adults!) to have a go at driving a train.

SWRS members will be on hand to answer your questions about the Society, our model railway club, and "Slough Estates No.3", our steam locomotive that used to work on the Slough Trading Estate railway.

Railway books and DVDs, and pre-owned model railway items, will be on sale.

Entry is free although donations would be very welcome!

Slough Model Railway Exhibition 2024

Burnham Park Hall, Windsor Lane, Burnham, Bucks, SL1 7HR

Sat 26th October – 10:00-17:00
Sun 27th October – 10:00-16:00

Layouts of various gauges and sizes (O, OO, N, 009), traders, modelling demonstrations, preservation groups, and a play railway where children (and adults!) can have a go at driving a model train themselves.

Free vintage bus from
Burnham Railway Station.

Further details HERE.

About the SWRS

The Slough & Windsor Railway Society is essentially a social group for anyone interested in rail transport of any kind, especially railways in the area around Slough and Windsor (UK). New members are always welcome (and you don't have to live in Slough or Windsor!).

The Society meets for illustrated talks on Friday nights in a former Great Western Railway building adjacent to Slough railway station, known to us as The Manor.
Non-members are most welcome.

"Friday Nights at The Manor"

09 May 2025

Railways of
South Wales

– an enthusiast's perspective

Stephen Bigley

7:45pm, at 'The Manor', Slough Station (directions)

A modern diesel locomotive hauls a train of bogie mineral wagons over an almost 200-year-old stone, arched river bridge.

The history of the railways of South Wales is unlike that of any other area in the UK. Instead of companies gradually merging or being taken over by larger players, most of the lines were promoted by local companies ‐ such as the Taff Vale or the Rhymney ‐ which ferociously fought one another and maintained their independence until take over by the GWR was forced on them after the First World War.

The coal mining that supported that network has now gone but that history has left numerous reminders of closed railways from an era when almost every valley had its own line. Whilst we will see some trains, mostly we be looking at infrastructure such as bridges (and remains of bridges), stations (open and closed), and track formations.

Photo: "A Freightliner class 66 on a train of empty stone wagons returning to Machen Quarry crosses the Ebbw River near Bassaleg over one of the oldest railway viaducts in the world, built 1826 by the horse-worked Rumney (sic) Railway. [2 December 2024 – Stephen Bigley]"

Please see the Programme page for more about Friday meetings.

Programme Changes: "Friday Nights at The Manor"

This autumn, several Friday night meetings have had to be re-scheduled due to circumstances beyond our control. Full details may be found on the Programme Page.

Unfortunately, two of our forthcoming speakers are unable to join us this November. Hopefully these evenings can be rescheduled in next year's programme.

Friday,   8th November – Clifton Rocks Railway  – Peter Davey
Friday, 29th November – Transport Miscellaneous – Colin Miell

In their place, Rob Holder will present a Transport Mix evening on 8th November; and on 29th November, Frank Banfield will give us another of his popular evenings of archive ciné film, this time featuring: Railways in the 1950s.

UPDATE – 15th October:
Christian Wolmar has had to postpone his talk from November 24th until early next year, so please note the following additional changes to the programme:

  • 24th Nov – Windsor Link Railway Update – George Bathurst
  • 05th Jan 2018 – My Latest Book – Indian Railways – Christian Wolmar

Our apologies for any inconvenience caused.

If you would like more information or to join the Society, please see the Membership page.

"Slough Estates No. 3"

In addition to holding weekly meetings and other events, the Society is the custodian for Hudswell Clarke 0-6-0ST "Slough Estates Ltd No.3", a 1924-built steam locomotive which operated for 50 years on the Slough Trading Estate Railway.

After a prolonged restoration (read more here), No.3 was finally returned to steam in 2000, and spent a number of years hauling passenger services at the Swindon & Cricklade Railway in Wiltshire.

In 2011, No.3 was relocated to the Middleton Railway in Leeds on long-term loan. This line is close to the site of the Railway Foundry where she was built in 1924. No.3 also closely resembles the last steam loco to work over the railway in NCB days in 1958. It is thus appropriate that she should have 'returned home' to Leeds.

No.3's steam boiler certificate expired in April 2021, so she is now out of traffic until completion of a ten-yearly inspection, which requires complete dismantling of the locomotive. The overhaul will be undertaken at the Middleton Railway. Progress reports may be found on the No.3 News page.

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