Our "Works Outing" event was held on Saturday 14th and Sunday 15th September 2019, based (as far as is practical, given the limits on the availability of crews) on the slogan "if it works it gets an outing". It featured a variety of operating patterns, including mixed traffic workings (ie with passenger and goods vehicles in the one train). All the locomotives were drawn from our own fleet, and since this was also the heritage open weekend there was a particular emphasis on our heritage locomotives. Those that ran in the course of the two days were:

• HC 1544 "Slough Estates No. 3";
• MW 1601 "Matthew Murray";
• HC D631 "Carroll";
• HE 1697 "John Alcock";
• HE 1786 "Courage"; and
• HC D1373 "Mersey Docks & Harbour Board No. 45".

Saturday and Sunday Services

On both days a special timetable was operated, providing an intensive service over both our main passenger line and the little-used Balm Road branch. Two train sets will be in operation, with one running as a goods train where passengers could travel in the guard's brake van.

There was a variety of patterns of operation, including some trains that had a locomotive at each end, and some that were double-headed. The first train departed at 10.30 am and the last one arrived at 4.30 pm.

Full details of the timetable are available, including the scheduled locomotives for each train, as a pdf file, which will open in a new browser tab or window (ready to be downloaded): click here to access this.

Special fares applied for each day, namely £7.50p for an adult, £3.50p for a child and £20 for a family ticket (covering up to 2 adults and 3 children). The various travel concessions that apply to our normal train services did not, however, apply for this event.

Our normal range of refreshments was available on each day, including hot and cold drinks and sweets and a range of sandwiches.

Whilst every effort will be made to provide the advertised services, The Middleton Railway Trust Ltd. reserves the right to amend or cancel any service without prior notice and accepts no liability whatsoever for any inconvenience, loss or disappointment caused, including travel expenses.

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• What we offer for visitors;
• Our train services;
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This is a special event that offers some particular attractions which may be of special interest to fathers (and other male members of the family, subject to some age restrictions), although the event as a whole should be of interest to everybody. The train service will run to the normal timetable and fares, and offer the opportunity to visit Middleton Park. Also our usual range of light refreshments will be available.

The particular attractions are a package that consists of:

• the opportunity to ride in the cab of one of our steam locomotives as it hauls the train up the line - more details of these footplate experiences are given below; and
• the opportunity to tour some of our workshops, to see what is involved in keeping these historic machines in working order.

There is an extra charge for this package, which for Saturday (when we are running a diesel locomotive) will be £10 per person, and for Sunday (when we are running a steam locomotive) will be £15 per person. There is only one package, for one person, available for each train on each day, where the trains depart Moor Road at the following times: 11:00; 11:40; 12:20; 13:00; 14:00; 14:40; 15:20 and 16:00.

We strongly recommend that these packages should be booked in advance, with bookings made either in person at our shop, or by telephone (07931 778843, but please only between 09:30 and 19:00). Subject to demand, we may be able to take bookings on the day, but we can not guarantee which trains will be available.

Footplate Experiences

The footplate experience gives you the opportunity to ride in the cab of the locomotive, for one return journey from Moor Road to Park Halt and back again. See for yourself just what has to be done to make these historic machines work!

There are a few special conditions that do have to apply to this, however, and these are as follows.

• For a footplate experience you must be at least 18 years old, and not older than 76 years.
• You also need to be in reasonable health - at least up to the level that is required to drive a motor car - and at the time of the experience you must not be under the influence of either drink or drugs.
• You will need to wear suitable clothes, and reasonably stout shoes. Trainers are not sufficient - they would not protect your toes if a lump of coal dropped on them!
• While we hope the situation will not arise, we do have to reserve the right to cancel a booked experience, in which case the special booking charge will be refunded.

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More Information

Other pages of our web site will provide more information about:

• What we offer for visitors;
• Our train services;
• How to find us.

As part of our "Last Coals to Leeds" project, this event was held on Saturday 29th and Sunday 30th September 2018, and focused on locomotives and other rolling stock that worked at collieries. Sadly, none of the locomotives that actually worked at Middleton Broom Colliery have survived, but similar ones have, and the ones that were operating were as follows:

• HC 1544, representing "Blenkinsop; Nineteen Fifty Three" (HC 1871, which did work at Middleton Colliery);
• MW 1601, representing "Forward" (MW 1690, which worked at Yorkshire Main Colliery, Edlington);
• HE 3839 "Wimblebury", which worked at Cannock Wood Colliery in Staffordshire, and was visiting from the Foxfield Railway.

Similarly, none of the goods wagons that actually worked at Middleton Broom Colliery have survived, but again similar ones have, and the ones that were operating included:

• our five-plank open wagon in pre-NCB Middleton Colliery livery, now numbered 50 to mark this event;
• our flat wagon in Middleton Colliery livery;
• our "Dogfish" hopper wagon, now in NCB livery; and
• our 13-ton open wagon in bauxite livery, as used in the 1958 special train to mark 200 years of the Middleton Railway.

On both days a special timetable was operated, providing an intensive service over both our main passenger line and the little-used Balm Road branch. Two train sets were in operation, one a passenger train and the other a demonstration freight train. The demonstration freight train made one journey only on each day, and was not carrying passengers, apart from a special party on the Saturday from Leeds City Council, who had sponsored this event.

There was a variety of patterns of operation, including some trains that had a locomotive at each end, but no double-headed operation for this event. The first train departed at 10.00 am and the last one arrived at 4.50 pm.

Full details of the timetable can be accessed as pdf files, which will each open in a new browser tab or window (ready to be downloaded), as follows.

• Public timetable;
• Detailed operating timetable;

Special fares applied for each day, namely £9 for an adult, £3 for a child and £20 for a family ticket (covering up to 2 adults and 3 children). The various travel concessions that apply to our normal train services did not apply for this event.

As well as our normal range of refreshments, including hot and cold drinks and sweets, we had a range of sandwiches available on each day.

We were pleased to be able to arrange overflow car parking on a site on Tulip Street, opposite the retail car park.

Other Previous Events

Return to the page for previous events.

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• What we offer for visitors;
• Our train services;
• How to find us.

Saturday 4th, Sunday 5th and Monday 6th May 2019

On these three days, in collaboration with the Friends of Middleton Park, some trains were met at Park Halt for a walk round the bluebell displays in the park. Each walk was tailored on the day to take in the best bluebells and was suitable for those taking part: pushchairs were welcome. The walks were fairly short - around 30 minutes - and also went to the lakeside visitor centre, where refreshments were available.

Our usual timetable applied. On each day the tour guides met the following trains on their arrival at Park Halt:

• the 11:00 from Moor Road;
• the 13:00 from Moor Road; and
• the 14:40 from Moor Road.

Each walk gave visitors a chance to explore the woods and see the bluebells with an experienced local guide.

We fixed this event for these dates in the hope that there would be lots of bluebells in flower by then, although obviously we could not guarantee this, but fortunately it turned out that there was still a good display.

Bring Your Teddy Bear

Children were invited to bring their teddy bear to join in the walk, and as part of this the following special offers applied to any children (aged under 16), provided that they were accompanied by a fare-paying adult.

• A child who brought their teddy bear with them travelled free.
• If a child did not have a teddy bear, we gave them one (while stocks lasted).

The normal adult fare of £7 applied for this event.

Other Previous Events

Return to the page for previous events.

Safeguarding the Future Appeal - Click for more details

More information

Other pages will provide more information about:

• what we offer for visitors;
• our train services;
• how to find us; and
• the Friends of Middleton Park (opens in a separate browser tab or window).