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Four engines in a row - Betty, Graham, Jean and Sir Thomas Royden.
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Discover the living ironstone museum in the heart of Rutland.

Our 2024 operating season starts on Sunday March 31st.
This year we showcase Sundew’s Great Walk – more on our Facebook pages.

  • Yard Development Update

    When we started the complete rebuild of the locomotive yard in March of this year, we knew that we had a real task on our hands. After removing the contaminated trackbeds in the area, over 250 tons of fill material and a drainage system have been installed. The experience gained in rebuilding the central area…

  • NCS – National Citizen Service to the Rescue

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    Many young people see the summer holidays as an endless boring series of days with nothing to do! In this area things are different! An enterprising group of 16 young people from Oakham, Stamford and Uppingham chose to spend 30 hours of their vacation making a significant improvement to our Museum under the National Citizen…

  • BODY BLOW TO MUSEUM

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    Our blog updates are usually tales of success and completion of projects at the Museum as the Charity makes progress with its development. Imagine the disappointment when volunteers arrived at the site to find that intruders had tried to gain access to our main gates, failed and then drove cross country across our boundary before…

  • MAROONED!

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    In the build-up to our forthcoming EXTON PARK REVIVAL event on 27th May 2013 which commemorates the 40th anniversary of the closure of ironstone quarrying in Rutland, the engineering team have undertaken to repaint DE5, the Janus locomotive which once worked over the quarry system. When the development team began work on the locomotive yard…

  • Development update –

    The project to rebuild the loco yard is on the point of starting to replace track onto the site. This week the last load bearing beam had its shuttering removed to reveal the rows of level and aligned retained bolt studs that will secure the bed rails. Work to level the inert fill over the…

  • 2013 Development Blog – Day 17

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    Despite the weather, progress on construction of our locomotive servicing pit has been rapid with the arrival of our building team. Out have come the blocks, concrete mixer and Keith our ever hard-working expert, such that not only have we laid the three courses of double skin blocks that will form the walls of the…

  • Day 9 – Redevelopment

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    Last weekend saw more activity in the loco yard as the final clay material was removed from under the track beds and sub-base fill materials were brought in to replace them. The area was originally laid on a clay base with insufficient fill material suitable for storage and maintenance of locomotives. Following leading practice, we…

  • Day 8 – Redevelopment 2013

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    It seems barely credible but the day saw concrete poured to form the base of the inspection pit. In a well scripted series of operations, the initial site works included the crucial drainage pipes from the inspection pit to the main drains with provision for an oil interceptor. In addition the team were able to…

  • Day 5 – Redevelopment Day

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    Progress continues to be rapid as Day 5 saw the end of site stripping, ditch clearance and tree felling to allow the site excavations to start in earnest. The eastern boundary of the site includes an open drainage ditch and the original railway company fence but both had been overtaken by years of undergrowth. The…

  • 2013 Development Blog – Day 1

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    Many thought that the major Rocks by Rail rebuild and relaunch in 2013 would have seen the end of heavy rebuilding at the Museum but this has just inspired the volunteers to press ahead with completing the remaining jobs. Attention has therefore turned to rebuilding the locomotive yard approaches and will see not only completion…

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