Railworld Wildlife Haven is a charity in

Peterborough Peterborough ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in the City of Peterborough district in the Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of Cambridgeshire, England. The city is north of London, on the River Nene. A ...

which has a nature haven, a model railway and other exhibits. It is located on a landscaped former coal storage yard which once served

Peterborough Power Station Peterborough Power Station is a 360MW gas-fired power station at Eastern Industry, Fengate, Peterborough, Fengate in the city of Peterborough, Cambridgeshire in the United Kingdom. It employs around forty people. The power station was commissi ...

. It was founded by Rev. Richard Paten (1932-2012) in 1985 as the "Museum of World Railways" (MWR), changing its name to "Railworld" in 1992 and is now called "Railworld Wildlife Haven" in reference to its change of focus towards its landscaped nature area. The centre is open only on certain days. It is located beside the Peterborough Nene Valley railway station, but it is a separate organisation.

Exhibits

In reference to its previous function as a railway museum, there is a small collection of locomotives and railway memorabilia, all of which require extensive work. There are two unique vehicles: * Tracked Hovercraft RTV 31, a prototype hover train which was tested in the Cambridgeshire Fens. * The Birmingham

AirRail Link The Air-Rail Link is a people mover linking Birmingham Airport with Birmingham International railway station and the National Exhibition Centre in England. The current system, originally known as SkyRail, replaced the earlier Birmingham Maglev ...

Maglev vehicle. Other locomotive are: *American Alco S1

switcher A switcher locomotive (American English), shunter locomotive (British English), station pilot (British English), or shifter locomotive (Pennsylvania Railroad terminology) is a locomotive used for maneuvering railway vehicles over short distanc ...

diesel locomotive A diesel locomotive is a type of railway locomotive in which the prime mover (locomotive), power source is a diesel engine. Several types of diesel locomotives have been developed, differing mainly in the means by which mechanical power is con ...

number 804. It is one of the five locomotives built by the

American Locomotive Company The American Locomotive Company (often shortened to ALCO, ALCo or Alco) was an American manufacturer that operated from 1901 to 1969, initially specializing in the production of locomotives but later diversifying and fabricating at various time ...

for the Steel Company of Wales works at

Margam Margam is a suburb and community (Wales), community of Port Talbot in the Wales, Welsh county borough of Neath Port Talbot, Wales, close to junction 39 of the M4 motorway. The community had a population of 3,017 in 2011; the built up area being l ...

. After vandalism and vital parts were stolen, including all the copper radiators and wheel bearings, the Alco was dismantled for spares (another Alco is at NVR's Overton Station), while the frames were scrapped in 2021. * Danish

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is bounded by the cont ...

Vauclain compound The Vauclain compound was a type of compound steam locomotive that was briefly popular from the early 1890’s to the mid-1900’s. Developed by the Baldwin Locomotive Works, it featured two pistons moving in parallel, driving a common crosshead ...

, DSB No. 996 Infos on dsb996.synthasite.com
built by Frichs in the 1950s.

References

External links

{{commonscat, Railworld Wildlife Haven
Railworld Wildlife Haven official website
Charities based in Cambridgeshire Transport in Peterborough