Today's trains are diesel again and the railway now blames track damage at Munday's Hill as well as dry weather. Its own table puts steam back on 27 September.
Steam was supposed to be back on the Leighton Buzzard Railway on 6 September. It is now 20 September, today’s train is a diesel, and the railway has added a second reason for it.
The notice on its own timetable page now reads: “Due to the dry weather we are currently experiencing all services will be hauled by diesels until further notice. Trains will also be terminating at Stonehenge Work due to track damage on Munday’s Hill.” (Leighton Buzzard Railway, Times & Fares)
The second sentence is new. When we reported the diesel substitution on 23 August, and in the version of the same page archived on 13 August, the notice was the dry weather alone. Track damage at Munday’s Hill has been added since.
What the railway’s own table says
The haulage column on that page is the thing to read, because it is updated date by date. As it stands this morning:
- Sunday 20 September, today: diesel, red timetable.
- Sunday 27 September: steam, blue timetable, Junior Railway Day.
- Every operating day after that: steam, through to the Halloween trains on 31 October and 1 November.
On 13 August the same table listed 13 and 20 September as steam days. Both have since been changed or passed without it, so the 27 September date is the railway’s current expectation rather than a promise. The railway says plainly that everything is “subject to availability, as we are using working museum pieces and volunteer staff”.
One point the railway has not explained. The notice says trains will terminate at Stonehenge Works because of damage at Munday’s Hill, but Stonehenge Works is already the far end of the published red and blue timetables, and Munday’s Hill has been marked “no boarding/alighting” since long before the damage. The timetables printed below the notice are unchanged. If the length of your ride matters, check at the booking office on the day.
The Steam Gala is still on, with a French guest
The bigger date is the Steam Gala on Saturday 24 and Sunday 25 October, and the railway has been adding detail to it rather than taking it away (Leighton Buzzard Railway, Steam Gala).
What is planned:
- an intensive four-train timetable, with 12 departures on the Saturday and 11 on the Sunday
- dusk running, which the railway says has not happened for many years
- a visiting guest engine, Decauville No. 246 of 1897, “Victory”, from the Bredgar and Wormshill Light Railway, confirmed in an announcement dated 8 September
- a French theme built around the 25th anniversary of the railway’s twinning with the P’tit Train de la Haute Somme, which is what the French-built visitor is there to mark
Gala tickets are priced separately from ordinary fares. Single-trip tickets are sold in advance online; rovers are sold on the day at the station building.
| Ticket | Adult | Senior | Child |
|---|---|---|---|
| Single Day Rover | £26.50 | £23.50 | £17.50 |
| Weekend Rover | £44.00 | £37.00 | £28.00 |
Money-off vouchers, complimentary tickets and other external promotions are not accepted on gala days, character visits or Santa Specials.
Next Sunday is run by children
If steam does return on 27 September, it returns on an unusual day. The railway is handing the operation over to its Junior Railway Club, which started in April 2025 and now has 25 members aged between 10 and 15 (Leighton Buzzard Railway, Junior Railway Day).
The juniors will run the booking office and shop, help passengers to the trains, take the guard’s duties, run the miniature train rides at Stonehenge Works and show visitors round the engine shed and the open-air museum. The railway says the only thing they will not be doing is driving the trains.
Their own programme for the day includes:
- a demonstration of how shunting is done safely, on sand wagons
- Driver for a Fiver, a go at driving a real diesel engine
- a mainline train driving simulator
- a signalling simulator
- model railway layouts built by junior members
It is a blue timetable day, which is the two-train service, so there are five departures from Page’s Park rather than three.
What it means for you
If the steam engine is the point of the trip, today is not the day and next Sunday is the railway’s current answer. Check the haulage column on the Times & Fares page on the morning you travel, not the week before. It has moved twice in five weeks.
If you are going anyway, the fares are the same whichever engine is on the front:
- Adult, 18 to 59: £12.70, or £14.00 with Gift Aid
- Senior, 60 and over: £11.30, or £12.50 with Gift Aid
- Child, 2 to 17: £9.00, or £10.00 with Gift Aid
- Under 2, and dogs: free
Groups of four or more paying passengers get 10% off. A second return on the same day is half price if you produce the original ticket at the booking office.
Getting there. Page’s Park is at the Billington Road end of town. If you are driving in, the parking page has the town car park charges, and the roadworks and travel page has what is closed this fortnight, including Plantation Road from 23 to 25 September. More days out are on our things to do in Leighton Buzzard page.
Sources
- Leighton Buzzard Railway, Times & Fares for the diesel and track damage notice, the operating date and haulage table, the red and blue timetables and the fares, read on 20 September 2026.
- The Internet Archive capture of the same page on 13 August 2026, which carries the dry-weather notice without the track damage sentence and lists 13 and 20 September as steam days.
- Leighton Buzzard Railway, Steam Gala for the four-train timetable, the departure counts, the dusk running, the rover fares and the 8 September announcement of Decauville No. 246 “Victory” and the Haute Somme twinning anniversary.
- Leighton Buzzard Railway, Junior Railway Day for the club’s founding date, its membership, the duties handed over and the activity list.
- Leighton Buzzard Railway, Special Events for the ticket restrictions on gala and character days.
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