Qualla: Sherwood Forest Railway

Sherwood Forest Railway: Introduction

Wed, 27 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Smokey Joe and Pet are the names of the two locomotives. They are not large, no full-sized mainline engines, but they are real steam: real boilers, real fireboxes, real whistles that echo through Nottinghamshire woodland on a Sunday morning. The Sherwood Forest Railway runs them along a one-mile course laid out by a handful of enthusiasts who started in 1998 with a piece of farmland, a length of secondhand rail and the determination to build something that worked.

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Sherwood Forest Railway: Following the Duke's Water

Wed, 27 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The track has a peculiar foundation. In the early nineteenth century, the Duke of Portland built a system of flood dykes through his estate to irrigate water meadows along the floodplain. By the time the Sherwood Forest Railway came along, almost two centuries later, the dykes ha...

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Sherwood Forest Railway: Smokey Joe, Pet, and the Others

Wed, 27 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The railway acquired its first two steam locomotives in 1998, started building the permanent way in 1999, and opened to paying passengers in 2000. Smokey Joe and Pet still do most of the work. A small electric locomotive called Anne handles works trains. A rail truck named Lottie...

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Sherwood Forest Railway: Found Track, Found Carriages

Wed, 27 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The track itself is a study in scarcity economics. Pre-used rail, in high demand and short supply, was laid on used wooden sleepers in the manner of nineteenth-century light railway construction. The one-mile course includes a cutting, a tunnel, a level crossing and engine sheds,...

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Sherwood Forest Railway: A Sunday in the Woods

Wed, 27 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

When the railway runs, the engines move at a walking pace, picnic areas extend along the line, and there is an adventure playground and an under-fives play area for children who have come for the train and stayed for everything else. Refreshments are available. The countryside ar...

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