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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"

22 November 2024

Snow and Scandinavia

– a black and white slide show

Geoff Warren

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

Partly-hidden by drifting snow, several centre-cab diesel locomotives await their next turn of duty.

The Nordic countries are a distinctive region of Europe: extensive, sparsely populated, and mostly facing a challenging climate in winter. These factors have influenced railway history and working practices, creating distinctive styles of infrastructure, equipment and operation.

At the end of February 2022, covid-related travel restrictions eased, although at the time there was no certainty that the pandemic had passed completely. Therefore, Geoff took the opportunity for travel promptly and bought a 22-day Inter Rail ticket with the aim of a journey through all the Nordic countries with railways.

The start was in Germany to catch some steam action, notably an event at the Bayerisches Eisenbahnmuseum, Nördlingen. His route headed north via Odense, Hallsberg, Lillehammer and Östersund to Oulu. Returning to a warmer climate was via Tampere, Stockholm and Copenhagen to Hamburg, concluding with a little more steam on Rasender Roland.

Some of the diversity of the current railway and tramway scene in the Nordic countries is illustrated. Many photos were enhanced by good luck with the weather: sunshine and snow were plentiful!

Photo: Kolari is the furthest north railway station in Finland, some 90km north of the Arctic Circle. On 14th April 2022, class Dr16 locos wait until departure time with their overnight trains to Helsinki – Geoff Warren

Please see the Programme page for more about Friday meetings.

PROGRAMME CHANGE: Please note that Christian Wolmar is unable to visit next week (29th Nov) for his talk "The Liberation Line". Instead, Matt Francis will be giving an evening about his trip to the USA, featuring visits to the Queen Mary and Amtrak. Christian's talk will be re-scheduled in 2025.

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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