Open House Historical Tour

An exclusive behind the scenes tour of the railway

Come and see parts of the DFR that members of the public don’t normally get to see in our brand new open house historical tours. Meeting in Whistles Cafe at Norchard Station at 10:30, with free tea and coffee available, you will receive a guided tour of our restoration shed and locomotive yard (usually closed off to members of the public) from 10:45 before heading up to your train for the 11:55 departure.

Seated right behind the locomotive in our resident first class observation saloon, enjoy complimentary tea/coffee and cake whilst watching one of our heritage steam locomotives working hard up close to Parkend. Alighting at northern tip of our railway, we’ll spend 20 minutes here visiting the newly opened signal box as the engine runs around the train.

Rejoining our observation saloon, we’ll do a full 4 ½ mile run from Parkend to Lydney Junction whilst your on-train tour guide points out historical points of interest along the route: learn why the railway was built and how it operated with commercial traffic. All this whilst enjoying more complimentary tea/coffee and cake.

Arriving at Lydney Junction, we get a bit of time to look more closely at the heritage steam locomotive whilst it changes ends (and maybe even get a peek inside the cab) before heading back to Norchard. After alighting from the train we’ll take a quick look inside the signal box here too before our tour ends back where we started, returning at 13:26.

Sturdy shoes are required. Due to the uneven nature of the terrain we’ll be covering, this event is unsuitable for those with mobility difficulties: however should you suffer from mobility difficulties and still wish to take one of these tours, please contact us in the first instance as we are able to offer a limited, personalised version of this event.