HDL Megawatt Valley Venturer railtour
Saturday 19 September 2026

Saturday 19 September 2026: HDL Megawatt Valley Venturer railtour

Our fourth and final railtour of 2026 is to Nottingham, and to the High Marnham Test Track near the Nottinghamshire town of Tuxford.

This 511-mile railtour will pick up passengers at our usual stops from Hastings to Tonbridge, then Bromley South, Clapham Junction, and a final pickup at Bedford. It will run via the Midland Main Line with a diversion via Corby, Oakham and Melton Mowbray taking in the 1,272-yard Harringworth Viaduct in both directions.

At Nottingham, railtour passengers have a choice:

1. Alight at Nottingham where you should have well over 4½ hours to visit the city;
2. Remain on board instead for a 97-mile round-trip via Trowell Junction, Mansfield, and Shirebrook Junction onto the 17-mile non-passenger line which (since 2009) incorporates the Tuxford Test Track to High Marnham.

The name of this trip, Megawatt Valley, is a nod to the Trent Valley area through which we will travel, and its proliferation of (since closed or adapted) coal-fired power stations. Indeed, our ultimate destination is the location of the 1962-built one-thousand-Megawatt High Marnham power station.

Facilities and refreshments

This outing will be formed of both our DEMUs (1013 the 6-coach DEMU, and 1001 the 4-coach DEMU), making a 10-coach train.

Our Buffet car, accessible to passengers in DEMU 1013 (i.e., coaches A, B, C, D and E), will be open all day for the sale of hot & cold food and drink at reason­able prices. A trolley service of hot & cold drinks and refreshments will operate in Standard Class areas of both DEMUs; in addition, a mini-counter service will operate from one of the inoperative guard’s-vans in DEMU 1001 (for coaches W, X, Y and Z).

In First Class (coaches A and B) an inclusive at-table service of drinks and light refreshments is offered through the day, with tea/coffee and toast after boarding, sandwiches prior to arrival, and savoury biscuits with cheese & wine on the return leg of the trip. First Class is not available to those joining at Bedford.

Fares

Standard Class fares	seat in trailer coach (Buffet / C / D / X / Y)	£95	£85 from Bedford
	bay of 4 seats in trailer coach (Buffet / C / D / X / Y)	£360	£320 from Bedford
	seat in motor coach (E / W / Z)	£102	£92 from Bedford
First Class fares (not available from/to Bedford)	seat in trailer coach (B)	£122
	seat in motor coach (A)	£129

Part-fares

We are aware that some of you may wish to make a booking just between Nottingham and Nottingham via the High Marnham Test Track.

We have now opened bookings for a limited number of unallocated seats in Standard Class only, on a “first come, first serve” basis.

The booking form has been updated to allow you to choose Nottingham as your boarding point; please then show High Marnham as your destination on the form.

Standard Class part-fares

Nottingham – High Marnham – Nottingham

£40

There is no group discount on this part-fare, equally there is no motor coach supplement. It might be possible to leave the train on the return leg of this part-fare journey if we succeed in gaining passenger access to the platform at Mansfield as scheduled, but this cannot be guaranteed.

Route and Timings

Route

From the Hastings Line up to Tonbridge, and the South Eastern and then the Chatham Main Lines through Bromley South to Factory Junction, we reach Clapham Junction and the Windsor Line.

We turn right at Barnes taking the Hounslow Loop, the Kew Junctions and the North London Line to reach the Dudding Hill Line which leads us to Brent Curve Junction and the Midland Main Line. This we follow all the way to East Midlands Parkway, except for a diversion between Kettering North Junction and Syston North Junction (just north of Leicester) via Corby and Melton Mowbray. From East Midlands Parkway we turn right at Trent South Junction for the run to Nottingham where the train reverses direction.

The High Marnham Test Track is reached via Radford Junction, Trowell Junction, Pinxton, Mansfield, and Shirebrook and Warsop Junctions; the route back to Nottingham will be via Toton instead of Radford, and incorporates an unavoidable lengthy pathing stop at Mansfield station at which we intend to unlock the doors (with due processes in place, as the train is be longer than the platform). The return from Nottingham is the same as the outward journey.

To illustrate the detail of our scheduled route, annotated extracts from Network Rail’s Sectional Appendix have been produced for the outward and return portions of this railtour (updated 8 September 2026).

Timings

Finalised timings have been published. They remain identical to the estimated timings we originally published.

Station	Outward journey (read down)		Return journey (read up)
Hastings	depart	06 07	return	23 08
St. Leonards Warrior Square	depart	06 12	return	23 04
West St. Leonards	depart	06 16	return	22 59
Crowhurst	depart	06 24	return	22 52
Battle	depart	06 30	return	22 45
Etchingham	depart	06 42	return	22 32
Tunbridge Wells	depart	07 02	return	22 13
Tonbridge	depart	07 13	return	21 54
Bromley South	depart	07 49	return	21 13
Clapham Junction	depart	08 25	return	20 49
Bedford	depart	10 04	return	19 05
Nottingham	arrive	12 07	depart	16 57
High Marnham (no alighting from train)	arrive	14 15	depart	14 30

Booking

Booking is a simple 3-step process:

1. Please check our Seat Availability Guide.

2. Fill in our online booking form right here in your web browser.

3. Make payment — either via Faster Payments in your online banking, or by cheque; directions for both are given in the booking form

The previous methods of booking which rely on the PDF leaflet are still available, should you wish.