Steam - Museum of the Great Western Railway, Fire Fly Ave, Swindon SN2 2EY.
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When looking to visit the Steam Museum, tickets can be purchased both online and at the attraction. We did not find a price difference when pre-booking online.
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Ticket prices (these were correct as of the 06/04/2024):
Adult (16+ years) - £13.10
Child (3-15) - £9.70
Under 3 – Free
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The Steam Museum offers an annual membership of £26.20 per adult and £19.40 per child (3-15 years). They also offer family annual memberships which work out cheaper. For example, a 2 adult and 1 child (3-15) annual tickets are currently £48.45.
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The Steam Museum is open Monday-Saturday 10am-5pm and Sunday’s 10am-4pm.
We spent just over an hour here as the boys loved going in the trains.
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When you start looking around the Steam Museum, it begins with the history of the Swindon GWR train line. There are videos to watch and small building areas where children can use pieces of wood and wooden bolts and make a vehicle. The second half of the museum has a few trains to view, which half of them allow you to go on. There are also interactive stations where you can control the train lines with the levers and a small gift shop.
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One of our favourite areas was at the start of the train section. There are stairs which lead you underneath a train.
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There is plenty of parking available in two hard surface carparks, which includes disabled spaces and child spaces. These carparks are owned by the Swindon Designer Outlet and is less than a 5-minute walk to the museum. Parking is an additional £2 per car up to 5 hours. These carparks can become extremely busy on weekends, so I would recommend visiting earlier on in the day.
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While at the Steam Museum, you can stop for something to eat at either the Café which is upstairs or there are a few food options available in the Swindon Designer Outlet. When walking past, the prices seemed reasonable. There aren’t any places to have a picnic inside the museum, however outside of the museum by the Swindon Designer Outlet, there are a few benches to sit at.
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When we last visited, our children were 3 years old and 18 months old. We found this day out had something for everyone, no matter your age, however we believe the children would have enjoyed the history side of things more if they were older.
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There are plenty of toilets by the entrance and in the café. Accessibility toilets and baby changing facilities are located by the entrance. There is also a set of toilets during the museum while walking around.
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To be able to travel between the different sections of the museum, there are both stairs and ramps available. The only area where there is not a ramp, is the train where you can go underneath.
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Overall, we would visit again but mainly as a rainy day out option. When we saw staff, they were friendly and helpful. We did find the museum small compared to others we have been to, however we found it informative, therefore we have rated this day out 4 stars out of 5.
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Date of recent visit: April 2024
