📌 Heritage railway & museum in Waterside, East Ayrshire
★★★
🛠️ Attraction offerings expected to be different in 2024 due to building leasing changes – see official website for details (checked April 2024)
Tucked away in rural inland Ayrshire, steam trains run along a short section of track at the Doon Valley Railway (formerly the Scottish Industrial Railway Centre) on summer Sundays. It’s the main draw of a messy, no-frills attraction on the site of a former colliery and later brickworks; remains of tumbledown industrial buildings (with lots of Keep Out! signs) overlook old engines, trucks and indoor exhibition areas. The site describes itself as a “work in progress”, and it’s certainly not perfect: funds are clearly limited, display sheds are rough around the edges and rust rules the roost (and roofs). But it’s an interesting piece of history if you can get there on one of the open days.
🌍 Location
📌 By the A713 0.5 mi southwest of Waterside
🧭 O.S. Grid Reference: NS 442083
🛰️ GPS coordinates: 55.344180,-4.458469
🚌 Bus stops at entrance
🚗 Car park
📝 Key info
⌚ Sundays, late June to September, plus 26 May 2024
🎫 £8 adult / £4 child in 2023
