ALL aboard – the elderly and disabled will soon enjoy a ride on North Oxford’s miniature railway following a grant from the Big Lottery Fund.

The Cutteslowe Park railway has been running for the past 25 years and about 20,000 passengers a year enjoy a ride on it.

But pensioners and the disabled find it too difficult to sit astride the trains, so charity bosses are getting a special carriage built so they can carry passengers in wheelchairs and those with mobility problems.

Volunteers at the City of Oxford Society of Model Engineers, who run the railway most weekends from Easter to the end of October, said they were delighted to receive the grant.

The grant is one of 52 Big Lottery Fund awards across the South East, totalling about £408,000.

Society spokesman David Price said the new carriage, which could carry wheelchairs or mobility scooters, would be ready for the new season, starting in March.

He said: “We get quite a few visits from care homes and disabled people but until now we have only been able to cater for those who use the ‘stride across’ carriages.

“The new carriage will overcome this problem because wheelchair users will be able to sit in the carriage in their wheelchairs, with their carers sitting behind them.”

Mr Price, right, is pictured with fellow society volunteer Mick Barlow.

Other Big Lottery Fund winners in Oxfordshire include Banbury Unit 464 of the Sea Cadet Corps, which was awarded £6,000, and the Oxford-based Farm Animal Care Trust, which won £3,305.

Visit awardsforall.org.uk or telephone 0845 4102030.