Midland Railway (Butterley)

One of my favourite places since being a youngster; we've been coming here for 40 plus years. The railway journey isn't long but you can ride on the train as many times as you like with your ticket. Deeleys tea room at Swanwick Junction is really pretty and during the summer holidays there is a 'beach' outside it which the kids love. I'd arrive early to make the most of the day and get the best value from your ticket.

Nice railway, pity it was a DMU but the exhibitions at Swanwick junction were quite interesting but the best bit was a visit the west shed (not actually part of the Midland Railway) where the Princess Margaret Rose is a static exhibit, the 'Royal coach' and the Duchess of Sutherland ( currently in bits) lovely engines nice little cafe, helpful and informative staff. Puts the rest of the site to shame. The rest of the railway was less interesting, good for children with nice play area , access to the country park by the narrow gauge or on foot. Nice trip on the DMU, goes across the reservoir at the end.

Went for fireworks night Fri 3rd and it was fantastic, what a brilliant effort from all the volunteers, well organized and a great night out capped off with an amazing fireworks display, well done.

Heritage railway set in some nice countryside, attended their annual transport weekend with historic diesel locomotives hauling old coaches, vintage road transport vehicles on display and a nice miniature railway running through a country park area. There are multiple transport themed museums on site and a Victorian signal box which is open to the public

Good grief - what an underrated attraction this is! The people who left less than enthusiastic reviews clearly didn't look round. We spent five hours here and probably saw one third of the place! I'll try to remember everything there is, but I'll definitely forget lots of things.There's the main railway line and stock as you'd expect. There's a museum. Several museums in fact! There's a 35 acre country park featuring the remains of old collieries, tramways, reservoirs, the Cromford Canal with its Butterley Tunnel and the abandoned village of Grumblethorpe. (And plenty of birdwatching and walking opportunities). There's model railways (lost count of those). There's a signal box you can visit. There's a church that's been taken from its former location and transported here (like many other things). There's the remains of several collieries. There's workshops. There's cafes. And in case that isn't enough to keep you occupied, there's a SECOND railway! This one is a narrow gauge light railway with an absolutely BEAUTIFUL 25 minute round trip for £3!We're definitely going to come back, because this place is better than Didcot, which suffers from being located in a dull area with little to commend it.With ticket prices much lower than you'll see elsewhere, this place is a 'must see'. Bring the family and enjoy yourselves - just remember to see it all because it's MUCH bigger than it first appears!

An excellent heritage steam railway with friendly volunteers, many of them were dressed in period costume for a special Victorian weekend when we visited. There's lots to do at the swanwick junction station including a cafe snack bar, loco sheds, static engine room, model railway, plus separately run narrow guage and garden railway. The only gripe was that the website encourages you to buy tickets on line but there is no prepaid ticket entrance to get in quicker so we had to queue up for ages with people who hadn't paid in advance and that was very slow as there was only one person at the ticket window. We nearly missed the first train. Otherwise it would be 5 stars.

Get ready for a load of photos! What a day we had here. We came here as part of a steam railway experience for two. Didn't get to go on a steam train but that didn't bother us. Staff were wonderful and polite. We were pretty much on our own when walking around as it was a quiet day and the first train too. Everything was kept lovely and clean and you can tell it has all been well looked after.We just enjoyed every minute and loved seeing all the different trains and carriages. Also the buses were wonderful to see too.

A nice Station to visit as part of a visit to the railway. Very much a country halt, with not a huge amount to see, but it had a good model railway and a nice shop. Dropped a star because was expecting the tea room to be open, but sadly it was closed so best to check before you go.

Last time I was here I was 11 years old, move on too many years and its still a good place to visit. Very friendly staff who are more than happy to chat about the railway. And we found out about Tugs, never heard of this programme but was interesting to see the fore runner to Thomas the Tank engine.Cafe was good enjoyed our day out plenty to do and see. Hopefully it wont be 40 years until we return.