RHYL STEAM PRESERVATION TRUST

Registered Charity No 1103953

Construction of our new station building and museum commenced on 14th March 2006. It is being financed by the Heritage Lottery Fund, Denbighshire EC Key Fund, Welsh Assembly Government and Rhyl Town Council. Read all about it in the Heritage Lottery Fund's press release. The new facility is scheduled to be opened to the public in May 2007.

The architectural team is headed by Frank Molloy RIBA of Denbighshire Design and Development, assisted by Consulting Engineers Veryards Opus, Quantity Surveyors Youdan Briggs, and Mechanical & Electrical Engineers Atkins. Our building contractors are the local firm of Wynne Construction. 

·     The building will enable us to keep our unique collection of heritage assets under secure weatherproof cover, so that the present ‘eyesore’ railway shed can be vacated.

·     The design includes a large enclosed platform area, which will be free of access to all, a museum in which one of our locomotives can be displayed, and also a workshop with restoration facilities. There will be plenty of space for displays about the history of our railway (the oldest of its type in the UK), and about the heyday of Rhyl’s fairground heritage. It will also provide a starting point for the proposed ‘Marine Lake Environmental Trail’.

·      The Marine Lake Strategy and Management Plan sponsored by the WDA rates our proposals as being of high/moderate priority and says that our building will become the focus of visitor facilities on the site.  

·      The Trust now has security of tenure over its site at Rhyl Marine Lake for the first time, following completion of its thirty year lease from Denbighshire County Council.

Pictures of construction works can be found on the what's new page. The plans below show what it will look like when it is finished.

The 2006 station will be of a completely new design, but reminiscent of the railway's 1930s building, shown here.

This plan shows the proposed external works, the track plan, and the ramped approach paths which will comply fully with the Disability Discrimination Act.

ABOUT RHYL STEAM PRESERVATION TRUST

Rhyl Miniature Railway is the oldest such railway in the UK. In May 2001 it celebrated the ninetieth anniversary of its opening. Its steam trains were built in Rhyl to carry holidaymakers around the Marine Lake, and are still doing so today.

Rhyl Steam Preservation Trust was formed in July 2000 and took over operating the railway from Easter 2001. Its objects are:
To preserve and operate the historic miniature trains on the Rhyl Miniature Railway, at Rhyl Marine Lake in the County of Denbighshire, for the benefit and education of future generations.

The Trustees are Les and Carol Hughes, Louise Hughes, Lucille Green, Joan Butterfield, Simon Townsend and Justin Bell. Les Hughes has owned the Marine Lake trains since 1980, and has now leased them to the trust indefinitely at nil cost. Joan Butterfield J P is Denbighshire's Councillor for Rhyl West. Simon Townsend and Justin Bell are two of the volunteers who maintain and operate the railway.

Download our Business Plan for the Station Building by clicking here (456KB)

This page last updated: 13/08/2008

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