Didcot Railway Centre — Attraction in South Oxfordshire

This is absolutely phenomenally brilliant and marvellous Railway Heritage Attraction and certainly one of the best in the UK. Conveniently situated next to Didcot Parkway Station making it great access for those visiting on the train but there are a host of car parks nearby to visit by Car. The Centre is dedicated to The Great Western Railway and is renowned as being the Living Museum of The Great Western Railway and there are host of excellent things to see dedicated to the Great Western Railway. The host of different things to see include The 1932 Engine Shed, The Signalling Centre, The Carriage and Wagon Display, Coal Stage, The Main Demonstration Line, The Branch Line, Locomotive Turntable, Transfer Shed, Transport Hangar, Museum, Air Raid Shelter & Brunel's Atmospheric Pipe and all of which are magnificent and give you a brilliant insight into The Great Western Railway. Visitors can enjoy a excellent steam train rides on the main demonstration line throughout the day on steam running days, which are really enjoyable and also there are rides on the railcar on the branch line which are just as good. The great thing about the place is all around the tracks and get right up close to the locomotive steam trains in the engine shed making it marvellously unique from other heritage railways and gives a better and greater visitor experience. In the Engine Shed, which is the best bit of this place as you can see the excellent range of Steam Locomotives on show including Pendennis Castle, Drysllwyn Castle, King George and King Edward II which are absolutely magnificently displayed and in outstanding condition. There are some information displays detailing their history and use on the Great Western Railway, which is very interesting and informative to read. The Signalling Centre is another great interactive aspect as adult and children can have a go at Signalling on the Railway and learn about the history of Railway Signalling from the Victorian period to the modern day and how it has evolved and changed. The Museum houses brilliant artefacts and memorabilia from the Great Western Railway and also learn a brief history of how the Great Western Railway was born through Brunel's work. In the Carriage and Wagon Displays you can learn about the various class systems of travels such as 1st Class etc and how people were transported in comfort when using the Great Western Railway. Other areas of interest include the Air Raid Shelter where you can learn how people on the Railways adapted during the World War Periods and The Transport Hangar you can learn about the vehicles that facilitated the transfer of goods and passengers to the railway stations which is good. There is also the Coal Stage where you can see how Coal was loaded onto the Locomotives and A Locomotive Turntable which is in great condition and as you wander around around the site you can see signage which is dedicated and attributed from the Great Western Railway. You can also see Brunel's Atmospheric Pipe, which is a great engineering feature for his vision of a Broad Gauge Railway. There is a gift shop and cafe selling a great of souvenirs, food & drink at reasonable prices. Overall this is an absolutely marvellous and sensational place to visit which makes for a great day and particularly for Railway enthusiasts and those who love The Great Western Railway. Well worth a visit whilst in the...

On Wed 12th March, I took my father-in-law who is in his 90’s and who can’t stand for very long or walk very far. We arrived around 11am and we were both really looking forward to the visit. Once we found it, the site and staff were marvellous but….. This is extremely difficult to find for the un-initiated and poor for people with walking difficulties. I had to make a call to the Centre to find out if we were in the right place [we were apparently] which was not a good start. The APCOA disabled parking instructions in the Great Western Car park are appallingly complicated, ambiguous wrt charging or not and generally un-friendly. Odd but understandable that not one disabled bay was in use. Why on earth you can’t simply park and display a valid disabled badge without resorting to registering with overcomplicated machines or apps is really beyond me, so we gave up. Shame on you GWR and APCOA. Furthermore, there is a 400yard pedestrian bridge from there to the Centre and this was a bit far for my FIL so we drove nearer and Google was saying we had arrived, but we were at the main station? When you’re focused on traffic, it is very hard to understand where the Centre is from the road. We found another car park marked for the Centre on the opposite side of the road, but this was full and necessitated another different parking App so we gave up there too. I was actually prepared to leave at this point for another preserved railway with great free parking and no machines an hour away but it was shut. We had decided to drive back and put up with GWCP and just pay up for the privilege when I noticed on my right by the station, more disabled parking which was available, simply required a badge and was ideal from my FIL. This is now a full 40 minutes since we had turned up in the area. We then saw the entrance to the Centre via the main station but now both needed the loo so we needed a person to let us through the main station barriers so we could get to it. Relieved, we then saw another entrance to the Centre from there. However, once we had got our tickets, we learned that the available wheelchairs were situated in the first aid room which was another couple of hundred yards away so we did the train ride first. Once we got to getting a wheelchair the first one had a broken footrest and there was only one more which was ok thankfully. From there, the visit went very well and we enjoyed what was left of the day but...

I visited Didcot Rail Centre for the first time and thoroughly enjoyed it. I visited on a steam day when two table engines were in steam and to my utter delight the Class 08 shunter was also operating on the shorter of the passenger lines. The 08 has been a favourite of mine since childhood!

At first it was a little disorientating, you've spent your life avoiding train lines and it's not 100% clear that you're free to be as close as the concrete path allows you to be. There are steam trains traversing the tracks and points right next to you and it feels like you're breaking rules walking down towards the sheds but you're not.

To me it's impressive just how much they have got on site in terms of locos, rolling stock, railwayana etc.

The signalling centre was interesting and allows you and kids to get hands on with signal levers and associated signal box equipment!

Don't skip over the WW2 bunker near the ladies toilets! I almost missed it but the display there was fascinating. I loved the old radio broadcast they played, giving it a genuine feeling for what it might've been like during those times. Very clever use of lighting to highlight display cases during the automated audio descriptions of the objects being displayed.

So much to see and do and it never felt cramped or over crowded. I can't wait to visit again.

I loved the ease and unrestricted access to the train rides.

The staff or volunteers that I interacted with were friendly and polite, the whole place felt like a good place to be.

Simply put if you are in the area it's well worth a visit, I got there by train arriving at Didcot Parkway and it couldn't be easier to reach. If you arrive by car then parking will be in the town not at the museum centre and you can access the museum via Didcot train station, just let the people know at the ticket barriers that you are visiting the museum and they'll let you through.

Looking forward to returning some time in the near future. As someone who grew up in what was once LNER territory I left with a new appreciation and...