This Sunday (14th July 2019) sees the annual garden party at Balleny Green miniature railway near Little Hay, which is something remarkable I visited way back in spring 2017, and it’s well worth a visit.

The garden party is an advance ticket only event, but is a real treat: You can send a copy of the form in below and arrange to collect your tickets on the gate.

Balleny Green Garden Party

Sunday 14th July 2019

Venue: Balleny Green, Little Hay, WS14 0QA.

Gate open 11.00am

11.15 am till 4 pm Train rides will finish promptly at 4pm

Please bring your own picnic lunch

Light refreshments – biscuits, crisps, etc., tea coffee, & soft drinks available from the station buffet.

Adults £6.50 – Kids 3-14 £4.50 – Under 3s free!

Free Parking on site for a maximum of 50 cars.

UNLIMITED TRAIN RIDES ALL DAY included in the ticket

Need a ticket? Click and print the pdf form on A4 here and post it in to

Mr Chris Greene,
7 Terry Drive,
Walmley, Sutton Coldfield,
West Midlands B76 2PT.
Tel: 0121 351 3509

Balleny Green is a narrow gauge, passenger-carrying miniature model railway located at Little Hay, east of Shenstone and north of Sutton Coldfield, just down the lane from the Holly Bush pub.

You can see exact directions on the SCMS website here.

The railway runs it it’s own grounds which are beautiful, and is skilfully and safely operated by dedicated and clever engineers. It’s genuinely breathtaking.

You can find out more at the Sutton Coldfield Model Engineering Society’s site here. I posted the following on my 365daysofbiking journal after my last visit. It’s a terrific thing.

May 1st – Today, I did something I’d been meaning to do for years – I paid a visit to Balleny Green, a little-known narrow gauge railway layout run by Sutton Coldfield Model Engineering Society at Little Hay, between Lichfield and Sutton Coldfield.

I’ve known this place was here for years, but never caught it open. This time, I made a concerted effort to find out when it was a ‘steam up day’ and popped in.

This was just so English. No entry fee. No charges to ride. Just a bunch of people sharing their love of a fascinating, beautifully engineered hobby in the middle of rolling countryside in gorgeous grounds.

There is a long layout consisting of several tracks – including a miniature one – but on the larger one, which interestingly is dual gauge – passengers sit in or on carriages and are conveyed by small locomotives – today one steam, one electric – through tunnels, over junctions, level crossings, past ponds, signals, signal boxes. It’s gorgeous.

The whole thing is clearly a labour of love.

There were no other attractions, and none were needed: tea and biscuits, and a tin for donations to cover running costs.

All right here on the doorstep, and few know about it. A wonderful thing.

Find out more about Balleny Green at their website here. I’d like to thank the members for a beautiful, life-affirming thing.