Easter Gala Steam Upat Mid-Suffolk Light Railway

This year’s Easter Steam Up is promising to be very special indeed as trains will be running to the new station at Aspall Halt with two guest locos in steam, ‘Illingworth’ and ‘May’. During Easter Weekend all the Middy facilities will all be open, including steam train rides in genuine Victorian G.E.R. coaches, MSLR museum, visits to the Restoration Shed, souvenir shop, café and the Middy real ale bar. Plus Easter Bunny hunts for younger visitors.

 Also this weekend will be the first time that members of the public will be able to ride on the newly acquired ex-GER coach no.14, our only 6-wheeler and the only known existing vehicle ever to have run on the old MSLR. Duty engines will be Hudswell Clarke, 1916 built 0-6-0ST no.1208 ‘Illingworth’, plus the Peckett & Sons 0-4-0 ST ‘May’ built in 1915. ‘Illingworth’, has been with us before in 2018 and is a genuine light railway loco having once worked the Bradford Corporation’s Nidd Valley Light Railway.

Visitors will also be able to see progress on the restoration of the railway’s own locomotive, Hudswell Clarke 0-6-0ST 1604 and LNER Y7 no. 985 resident with us in the Lottery Funded Restoration Shed. The extension of the line is now open to just over twice its previous length giving passengers a return journey of close on 2 kilometres. Work is also progressing well with the building of the new destination station, Aspall Halt.

There are no facilities at Aspall Halt yet, but passengers may alight and take in the views of the open Suffolk countryside once traversed by the railway.

 The Mid-Suffolk Light Railway offers a fascinating picture of what life was like on and around a rural railway during the early part of the last century. It’s a great day out for families and railfans alike.