Midland Railway Centre

Midland Railway Station is set on the outskirts of the Derbyshire town of Ripley in a village named Butterley and is host to a wide variety of steam and diesel engines. Butterley Station was actually demolished following the closure of the Railway, and the station house that is now there was moved stone by stone from Whitwell in North Derbyshire. The remainder of the buildings and the tracks have been built since the Midland Railway trust set up in 1973. The station house not only hosts the original ticket office, but also a gift shop, where a host of items can be bought, they specialize in Thomas the tank engine goods, but a good range of hornby ...

My husband is a steam railway enthusuiast, the rest of us our less enthusiastic about steam engines, nevertheless we all had a good day out at the Midland Railway Centre. This opinion does not contain a lot of detailed info on locomotives, signal boxes etc. as I don't really understand it all, just a mums view of the place. Although listed as an attraction in Ripley the stations are actually at Butterley and Swanwick Junction. We parked at Butterley where there is a free car park, which is actually a large field belonging to the local angling club. There is also a car park at Swanwick Junction, but although we drove through Swanwick we didn't see any ...