A new railway station will open in Havering on Monday. No, it’s not Crossrail, it’s on the borough’s miniature railway.

Romford Recorder: Bill Dadswell and Bruce Hastings from HMRC. Pic: Ken MearsBill Dadswell and Bruce Hastings from HMRC. Pic: Ken Mears (Image: Archant)

Mayor of Havering Philippa Crowder will be on hand to unveil the station and passenger coach for the Havering Miniature Railway Club.

It will be a welcome sight for members who’ve dedicated hundreds of hours of their time to building and improving the railway, in Lodge Farm Park, over the past couple years.

Bill Dadswell, of Heath Park Road, has been instrumental in bringing it to the Romford park and says it is all worth it despite the hard work.

“We’ve been involved in it (trains) for 20 to 30 years so we’ve got quite a bit of experience building and operating these lines,” said Bill. “We thought it would be nice for Havering to have one – there’s only three or four in the area.

“We started by laying 100 metres of track to see what the response would be like. The very first time we operated we had about 800 people and it seemed none stop.

“There’s only about 12 of us and everything you see out in the park we have done as a group. It’s been a real struggle at times and there’s a lot of heavy lifting involved.”

One of the volunteers is Nathan Jenkins, 15, from Redden Court School, who has spent the majority of his Easter holidays at the school making plaques and key rings for the club with the help of his teacher Darren Pendred.

Nathan’s commitment to the railway is just another example of the dedication of the club’s members and Bill expects they’ll all be busy on Monday with people eager to take a ride around the track.

“Monday should be quite nice. The 20th Romford Scout group will be selling refreshments and Nathan’s running his shop,” said Bill. “If anything the problem is going to be we will be swamped.”