We are scheduled to be open on the following days. However, please note that these railway operating dates are subject to possible late changes and are subject to weather and volunteer availability. Please check on our BMR Facebook page (click here) for the last minute changes. It may be that on days of poor weather the BMR will stop the operation of the trains and close.
Santa Express 2024
Booking will open at 9am on Saturday 12th October – visit santaexpress.eu for further details. It currently points to a page to give you information, train times and the information that you will need to make your booking – do not bookmark the page. Please revisit santaexpress.eu on the morning the tickets go live.
Click on the date of interest for further details.
The miniature railway is operated by a group of volunteers on behalf of The Christabella Charitable Trust, a charity registered in England No. 800610, within its property situated at Barnards Farm, West Horndon, CM13 3FY. All funds raised are used for its charitable purposes, further details available from The Charities Commission (www.charitycommission.gov.uk)
Our standard Train Ticket Donations* are as follows:
£7 – Return Ticket
£10 – Rover Ticket & ride all day!
Card Payments only on the day.
Pre-booking for the railway is only required for certain special events (shown light blue in the list below), otherwise you can just turn up on the day.
The Barnards Farm Gardens are open on Thursdays from the 4th April 2024 through to 12th September 2024 inclusive.
We will be operating the Barnards Miniature Railway every Thursday during the school holidays during the garden open day season from 11am until 4pm. We are pleased that we are now able to extend the journey further to ‘Sitooterie Halt’ which makes the ride 1½ miles return. The trips will be every 20 minutes and last about 25 minutes. The trains will be hauled by diesel locomotives from our heritage Mardyke collection, although steam locomotives may appear if available on some trains. On some days it may be possible as an add on to ride a shorter route on one of our sit in Electric Multiple Units to Belvedere and back.
Please note that on Thursdays you also do need to have a separate Garden entry ticket prebooked and payable via the National Garden Scheme App or NGS Website. Garden Admission, on Thursday is £10* for adults; children are free.
We are currently serving light refreshments in Burton Shaw station.
Kindly also note that dogs are not permitted unless they are guide dogs.
*This represents a charitable donation to The Christabella Charitable Trust (Registered in England No. 800610) used entirely for its charitable purposes.