Brick Adventures at Didcot Railway Centre

13th and 14th July 2024

Do you love the brick? Come and celebrate the world's most popular building brick and delight in the displays on show! During your visit, you'll not only have access to 21 acres of Great Western Railway history and unlimited train rides, We'll have our own custom printed bricks (2 designs to choose from) available for you to buy and we'll be building on the 3 models we released in 2023 with more exciting designs to add to the collection. We'll also have a number of exhibitors showing their own creations and vendors selling their wares, plus models build by our own amazing volunteers!.

In addition, we're supported by The BRICK People, bringing their own flavour of displays and interactive activities including tower building and speed builds.  Compete against others to build the highest tower in the quickest time. Take the anagram trail and find all the characters to receive a reward.

You can also take the challenge in our open build areas and display your own creations for other visitors to see, including a building area for our younger visitors.

You might also see some of our own loco's on display!

Your ticket prices includes everything you'd normally expect from a visit to us, plus all of the displays and activities once you're inside.

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Travel back in time to the golden age of the Great Western Railway and savour the sights, sounds and smells of steam as you explore this 21-acre living museum with trains dating from Victorian times to the 1960s.

Steam trains will be operating on both of the Centre's two demonstration lines, allowing you to take unlimited rides. The second running line will be running too and may feature a pioneering diesel railcar, a heritage diesel locomotive or a small branchline steam engine. Check our Locomotive Roster to see what we expect to be running on the date of your visit.

Pick up our colourful Centre Guide, explore this 21-acre living museum and unearth almost two centuries of railway history. Get up close and see them at close quarters. Stroll through the original 1932 Engine Shed and see magnificent preserved locomotives – find 5900 Hinderton Hall, climb onto the footplate and listen to Archie, the driver, and Stan, the fireman, prepare their loco! Listen out for the sounds of a working engine shed and see if you can hear Stan fetch his supplies from Jonah, the storeman.

See surviving track from Brunel's Broad Gauge, discover painstakingly restored buildings, coaches and wagons and learn more about the development of railways and how they changed everyday lives.

There's a chance to get hands-on in The Signalling Centre where you can find out how trains have been controlled through the ages. Descend into a shelter* built to keep Didcot's enginemen safe in WWII and experience an air raid or immerse yourself in the varied collection of fascinating, smaller artefacts in the museum. Don't miss the carriage display with coaches dating from Victorian times to the 1940s that evoke bygone eras. See the VIP Saloon reputed to have been used by General Eisenhower during the preparations for D-Day and later used in the GWR Royal Train!

Catch a train and alight at the far end of the site to see the Transfer Shed - where goods were once moved from broad gauge to standard gauge trains. There's a rare section of surviving track from Brunel's Broad Gauge railway, complete with replica Victorian locomotives.

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Children can also make tracks to the outdoor play area or dress up as a station master*. You can relax over lunch or enjoy a snack in the refreshment rooms and don't forget to pick up a souvenir in the gift shop. The modern trains running past the centre complete the picture and mean you can experience over 180 years of railway progress in just one day!

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