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Slough & Windsor Railway Society

Open Day

Saturday, 30th March 2024

The Society's meeting place 'The Manor', by Slough railway station, will be open to visitors between 10:00 and 17:00.

(Directions to The Manor)

Come along to have a chat, look inside the Victorian building, visit our museum, and see our exhibition model railway layouts: Slough Estates Sidings, and Taplow.

The club's model railway will be available for children (or adults!) to have a go at driving a train.

SWRS members will be on hand to answer your questions about the Society, our model railway club, and "Slough Estates No.3", our steam locomotive that used to work on the Slough Trading Estate railway.

Entry is free although donations would be very welcome!

(Further information here...)

Slough Model Railway Exhibition 2024

Burnham Park Hall, Windsor Lane, Burnham, Bucks, SL1 7HR

Sat 26th October – 10:00-17:00
Sun 27th October – 10:00-16:00

Layouts of various gauges and sizes (O, OO, N, 009), traders, modelling demonstrations, preservation groups, and a play railway where children (and adults!) can have a go at driving a model train themselves.

Free vintage bus from
Burnham Railway Station.

Further details HERE.

About the SWRS

The Slough & Windsor Railway Society is essentially a social group for anyone interested in rail transport of any kind, especially railways in the area around Slough and Windsor (UK). New members are always welcome (and you don't have to live in Slough or Windsor!).

The Society meets for illustrated talks on Friday nights in a former Great Western Railway building adjacent to Slough railway station, known to us as The Manor.
Non-members are most welcome.

"Friday Nights at The Manor"

20 December 2024

Members' Evening
Mulled Wine
and Mince Pies

7:45pm, at 'The Manor', Slough Station (directions)

A snowy scene featuring a large German steam locomotive leading an express passenger train into a deep wooded cutting on a two-track mainline railway. The cold temperature exaggerates the exhaust steam billowing from the locomotive's chimney and cylinders.

The Manor will be open as usual for members to come along and socialise, enjoy mulled wine and mince pies, and bring-and-share party food.

For those that wish to sit and watch, we will be showing selections from the railway DVDs donated for our sales stand, on our big screen.

And of course, being the last meeting before Christmas, the beer train will be coming out for its annual run on the club model railway.

Hope to see you there!

The laptop and projector will also be available. If you have digital films or photos to share with fellow enthusiasts, please contact info@swrs.co.uk in advance, or see Peter Jewell before the meeting.

(There will be an opportunity after Christmas for members to show non-digital media. The first two meetings in January will be members' evenings: on 5th Jan we will have an epidiascope set up (eg for print photos or other printed items), and on 12th Jan, a slide projector.)

(Photo: DB Class '001' (DRG Class '01') coal-fired 4-6-2 No.001 111 in largely original condition, climbing the Schiefe Ebene on a Bamberg–Hof express. Feb 1973
(Hugh Llewelyn [CC-by-SA 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons))

Please see the Programme page for more about Friday meetings.

Please note that new heaters have been installed in The Manor, so winter meetings are a lot warmer than they used to be!

Programme Changes: "Friday Nights at The Manor"

This autumn, several Friday night meetings have had to be re-scheduled due to circumstances beyond our control. Full details may be found on the Programme Page.

Unfortunately, two of our forthcoming speakers are unable to join us this November. Hopefully these evenings can be rescheduled in next year's programme.

Friday,   8th November – Clifton Rocks Railway  – Peter Davey
Friday, 29th November – Transport Miscellaneous – Colin Miell

In their place, Rob Holder will present a Transport Mix evening on 8th November; and on 29th November, Frank Banfield will give us another of his popular evenings of archive ciné film, this time featuring: Railways in the 1950s.

UPDATE – 15th October:
Christian Wolmar has had to postpone his talk from November 24th until early next year, so please note the following additional changes to the programme:

  • 24th Nov – Windsor Link Railway Update – George Bathurst
  • 05th Jan 2018 – My Latest Book – Indian Railways – Christian Wolmar

Our apologies for any inconvenience caused.

If you would like more information or to join the Society, please see the Membership page.

"Slough Estates No. 3"

In addition to holding weekly meetings and other events, the Society is the custodian for Hudswell Clarke 0-6-0ST "Slough Estates Ltd No.3", a 1924-built steam locomotive which operated for 50 years on the Slough Trading Estate Railway.

After a prolonged restoration (read more here), No.3 was finally returned to steam in 2000, and spent a number of years hauling passenger services at the Swindon & Cricklade Railway in Wiltshire.

In 2011, No.3 was relocated to the Middleton Railway in Leeds on long-term loan. This line is close to the site of the Railway Foundry where she was built in 1924. No.3 also closely resembles the last steam loco to work over the railway in NCB days in 1958. It is thus appropriate that she should have 'returned home' to Leeds.

No.3's steam boiler certificate expired in April 2021, so she is now out of traffic until completion of a ten-yearly inspection, which requires complete dismantling of the locomotive. The overhaul will be undertaken at the Middleton Railway. Progress reports may be found on the No.3 News page.

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