Page's Park Station,Billington Road
Leighton Buzzard
Bedfordshire
LU7 4TN
01525 373888
Narrow-gauge railways--with rails closer together than on the main-line system--were never very common in England. Rarer still are those which are still operating after almost 100 years, and have their origins in the First World War. Welcome to the Leighton Buzzard Railway.
A hundred years ago, as the Great War descended into stalemate in the trenches, thousands of miles of narrow-gauge railways were built to supply the front lines. At the end of the conflict in 1918-19, lots of materials and equipment became surplus, and several new railways were built in England as a result.
In the countryside around Leighton Buzzard, quarries had been opened to produce high-quality sand, and one of these railways was built in 1919, to take this traffic off the local roads.
By 1967, most of the sand was leaving by road, but the railway was saved from closure by a society of volunteers, who still operate it as a working museum, carrying passengers instead of sand. Using historic steam locomotives from all over the world, the Leighton Buzzard Railway takes you back to the early days of the English light railway, with sharp curves, steep inclines, level crossings and roadside running.
Come and experience it for yourself!
