A loop that runs approximately 1 and 1/4 miles with some breath-taking views over the South Downs. Visitors board and alight from the same station opposite the main museum building.
The narrow gauge Quarry Railway, is a 2 foot gauge steam railway running for approximately 1.5 miles through woodland and fields. The journey starts at the station by the visitor centre, and travels through pretty woodland until it reaches the old sandstone quarry.
After a pause to take in the spectacular views across the South Downs, the journey continues through woodland and alongside fields, where horses often graze. Further fabulous views open out looking over the Sussex Weald.
The railway has two steam and one diesel locomotives. Even the passenger carriages are historic, coming from the long closed Ramsgate Electric Tunnel Railway. One of the carriages has a wheelchair compartment, and a ramp is available at the station.
Visit the Railway in late April and early May for wonderful displays of bluebells, whilst the Azalea Walk - viewable from the train - is colourful with Mollis azalea blooms during May.
Hollycombe’s 2ft, narrow gauge, Quarry Railway was built as a tourist attraction in the 1960s, but its locomotives and rolling stock are no less historic for that.
Narrow gauge railways have fulfilled important roles throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. They were an essential part of moving supplies to the front during World War One, where muddy conditions meant horses or motor vehicles could not be used.
They also provided vital transport for industry where standard gauge railways were either too big or too expensive to build. This is particular true of the Welsh slate quarries where a narrow gauge railway could wind through the hills and mountains, with tight bends, to transport slate from the quarry to the coastal ports.
Hollycombe’s two locomotives, Hunslet Jerry M (1895) and Andrew Barclay Caledonia (1931), both came from the Dinorwic Slate Quarries in North Wales, which closed in 1967.
The coaches are now around 100 years old and came from the long-closed Ramsgate Electric Tunnel Railway in Kent.