Railworld Wildlife Haven

This article is about the railway charity in England. For the US rail transport holding company, see Rail World.

Railworld Wildlife Haven is a charity in Peterborough 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.^[5]

Railworld Wildlife Haven

The Tracked Hovercraft RTV 31
Established	1985 (1985)[1]
Location	Peterborough, England
Coordinates	52°34′4.50″N 0°14′53.00″W
Type	Charity
Director	Brian Pearce[2]
Nearest car park	On site[3]
Website	Official website

"Railworld Wildlife Haven"^[4]

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.^[1] The centre is open only on certain days.^[6] 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 Maglev vehicle.

Other locomotive are:

• American Alco S1 switcher diesel locomotive number 804.^[7] It is one of the five locomotives built by the American Locomotive Company for the Steel Company of Wales works at Margam. 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 Vauclain compound, DSB No. 996 ^[8] built by Frichs in the 1950s.