As part of our "Last Coals to Leeds" project, this event will be held on Saturday 29th and Sunday 30th September 2018, and will focus 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 will be operating will be 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 is 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 will be operating will include:

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.

HE 3839 Wimblebury

HE 3839 "Wimblebury",

Picture © Ian Smith, 2018

On both days a special timetable will be 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, one a passenger train and the other a demonstration freight train. The demonstration freight train will make one journey only on each day, and will not be carrying passengers, apart from a special party on the Saturday from Leeds City Council, who have sponsored this event.

There will be a variety of patterns of operation, including some trains that will have a locomotive at each end, and possibly some that will be double-headed. The first train will depart at 10.00 am and the last one will arrive 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.

Special fares will apply 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). In addition, the various travel concessions that apply to our normal train services will not apply for this event.

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

We are pleased to advise visitors arriving by car that we have been able to arrange overflow car parking on a site on Tulip Street, opposite the retail car park.

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.