Celebrate 200 Years of Railway History!
In 1825, the Stockton & Darlington Railway opened the world’s first passenger railway station on Tuesday 27th September — a milestone that transformed travel forever. Steam locomotives carried passengers and goods at unprecedented speed, sparking a transport revolution that connected towns, boosted industry, and shaped modern Britain.
This special SideTracked Railway 200 event is close to the former station of Ross-on-Wye, at Ross Garden Store. This is one of the surviving engine sheds, the event taking place at the Engine Shed Café. This event is part of a nationwide celebration running from Wednesday 24th to Tuesday 30th September 2025. All finds and hides from this event count towards your SideTracked statistics, and a unique profile badge will be created especially for this event. Whether your chosen location is old, disused, miniature, or still bustling today, it’s part of a railway story thqat’s been 200 years in the making.
Ross-on-Wye station was opened on 1st June 1855 by the Hereford, Ross and Gloucester Railway. Initially a broad guage line, it was converted to standard guage in 1869 following its absorbtion into the GWR in 1862. In 1873, the Ross and Monmouth Railway opened. Both railways eventually closed due the Beeching cuts, the Monmouth line closing in 1959, passenger traffic ceasing on the Hereford to Gloucester line in 1964, and full closure in 1965. The station was demolished in the 1970s, the site becoming the Ashburton Industrial Estate you now see. Two Engine Sheds survive plus some other structural relics.
The event will take place at the Engine Shed Cafe, meeting at the tables outside (they are undercover)
A very big thank you to Ross Garden Store for allowing this event to take place.