Family

A Day Out on the Model Trains: Steam, Porcelain Painting and a Real Derailment

We took Ava to the model trains on Sunday and it turned into one of those days that keeps paying off for weeks afterwards. Steam locomotives, radio controlled excavators, porcelain painting, and fifteen minutes stuck behind a genuine derailment.

Collin de Witt

• 5 min read
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Dark poster cover reading A Day Out on the Model Trains, with badges for Family Day, Garden Railway and Centurion, five circular icons, and a small steam locomotive on a garden railway

We took Ava to the model trains on Sunday 27th September 2026, and it turned into one of those days that keeps paying off for weeks afterwards, because she is still talking about it.

The place is the Centurion Society of Model Engineers, just off the R21 in Centurion. It is a proper club, run by volunteers, and on Sundays they open the gates to the public and run trains for rides. Every third Sunday of the month the members bring their steam locomotives out, which is the day you want if you have a small person who likes things that go.

The rides

The main event is a ride on the trains themselves. These are not toys you look at through a fence — you sit on them and they take you around the grounds. The steam locomotives puff smoke the whole way, which Ava found absolutely fascinating, and honestly so did I. There is something about a small steam engine doing exactly what a big one does, smoke and all, that is genuinely charming.

Entry includes your first ride, and extra rides are cheap enough that we went around more than once.

The derailment

This is the bit we will remember longest, and it was completely unplanned.

About halfway around one of our trips, the whole thing came to a stop. An electric locomotive that had been running ahead of our train came off the tracks. Not a model on a shelf tipping over — an actual derailment of an actual running locomotive, which meant everything behind it stopped too.

We sat there for about fifteen minutes while the club members walked up the line and sorted it out. And here is the thing: it was the most authentic possible experience. Real trains derail, real trains get delayed, and for a quarter of an hour we got the full railway experience rather than the sanitised version. The volunteers had it back on the rails and we were moving again, and Ava got to watch people fix a train, which is arguably better than the ride itself.

Everything else that was there

The trains are only part of it. There was a lot going on across the grounds:

  • Engineering exhibits — a proper spread of working models and mechanical demonstrations
  • RC trucks and excavators — radio controlled construction vehicles, which had a permanent crowd around them
  • Desktop model train layouts — the traditional indoor setup, all scenery and tiny details
  • Garden scale trains — the bigger gauge railway compared to the tiny indoor models running outdoors.
  • Porcelain painting — this is where Ava spent a good chunk of time, and she loved it
  • Food and a picnic — we made a day of it with a picnic, and there is a tuck shop for cold drinks and ice creams, food trucks and a market, the day we went.

That combination is what makes it work as a family day rather than just a train day. There was enough variety that nobody got bored, and enough sitting-down time that the adults got to actually relax.

The family

Mostly Ava, if I am honest, because she was having the best day, and it shows in every single photo.

Family selfie of Collin, Ava and Cheryl under the trees with the station canopy and the track behind them
Collin, Ava and Cheryl under the trees, Ava with her arms flung out wide
Family selfie under the trees with Cheryl waving at the camera
Collin and Ava laughing at the camera, backlit by the sun through the trees
Ava beaming up at the camera under the station canopy with Collin behind her
Collin and Ava sitting together on the train with the yellow handrail in front of them
Ava at the porcelain painting table in a red smock, painting a white ballerina figurine
Close-up of Ava pulling a cheeky face with her fists up while Cheryl laughs behind her
Family selfie on the grass with Collin in a cap and blue polo, Cheryl in pink, and Ava between them
Collin and Ava under the station canopy beside a green sign reading Board From
Waiting under the station canopy, right where the sign tells you to be.

The day out

The ride itself, from the carriage. This is what it actually looks like sitting on a model scale train going around the grounds.

Selfie on the moving train with Collin in a cap and blue polo in front and Cheryl and Ava behind, trees blurring past and the track curving away
Looking along the train from behind, rows of passengers in the open carriages, narrow gauge track on the ground beside the train and blue gazebos in the distance
Selfie of the three of them under the station canopy with the corrugated roof overhead and trees beyond
Looking along the train as it curves, passengers down the left side, reddish brown handrails beside the track, and grass and trees
Looking along the train through the greenery with a red locomotive visible ahead in the distance
The train crossing the red suspension bridge with a large SLOW sign in the grass and passengers in the open carriages
Cheryl crouching down to hug Ava beside the black steam locomotive at the station platform, with the station building and its red roof behind
Selfie of Collin and Ava backlit by sunlight through the trees

The locomotives

The standard of the engineering on these is genuinely impressive. They are not toys — they are proper little machines, built and maintained by the members, with working valve gear, brass fittings and boilers you could study for an hour. Both steam and electric locomotives were running, and several of them are named and lettered like the real thing.

A dark green ride-on steam locomotive lettered Commache Mining Co and John Sharpe Locomotives, with a driver in a sun hat, crossing a red steel bridge with a timber wagon behind
A ride-on steam locomotive at the platform with a driver in overalls and a wide hat, passengers waiting under the shade structure
A green ride-on electric locomotive in the yard lettered C.S.M.E., with people watching from the platform
A green ride-on steam locomotive at the platform with a driver in green overalls leaning over the cab, passengers waiting behind the fence
A blue ride-on electric locomotive lettered C.S.M.E. on the track beside the picnic benches
The front of a blue ride-on locomotive with yellow chevrons and a red buffer beam, with two plush toys looking out of the cab windows
Close-up of a ride-on steam locomotive's green boiler, brass fittings and valve gear above the yellow platform edge
A green ride-on steam locomotive being driven along the platform with a young passenger in the carriage behind
Close-up of a ride-on steam locomotive's boiler with brass bell, copper pipework and polished motion

Worth knowing before you go

  • They are open on Sundays, roughly nine in the morning until half past three in the afternoon. They close over the Christmas and New Year break.
  • The third Sunday of the month is the members' day, when the steam locomotives come out. If you want the smoke and the hissing, that is the Sunday to pick.
  • There is a small entry fee per person (little ones under two are free), and it includes your first train ride. Extra rides are a few rand each.
  • Bring a picnic. There is a tuck shop for drinks and sweets, and braai facilities if you want to make a proper day of it.
  • Weekdays are private bookings only, so weekends are your window.

It is run by the Centurion Society of Model Engineers, which is a registered non-profit staffed by people who clearly love this. Worth supporting, and worth the drive.