The Penny Salon Micro-Gallery at Ongar Station
Free admission! Gallery open whenever trains are running.
The Penny Salon is taking a break while the railway remains closed for winter maintenance. We will return when services resume in April.
2025 marks 160 years of the railway from Loughton to Ongar. Our next exhibition will be 160 years of the railway to Ongar featuring the varied fortunes of our unique railway, the only heritage line to have been electrified. This will be in place for the Diesel Gala, the 160th Anniversary Weekend on 3-4 May and into June.
Since the Penny Salon opened in May 2017, we estimate that we will have welcomed nearly 20,000 visitors, and that this landmark may be reached this spring. Why not pay us a visit - you might become the lucky 20.000th visitor!'
Future Exhibitions
2025 also marks national celebrations to commemorate 200 years since the opening of the first passenger railway, the Stockton & Darlington in 1825. Our second exhibition will be 200 years of British railway locomotives. We expect to conclude with the third selection of Geoff Silcock's award-winning railway photographs in Our Steam and Pleasant land.
The start and end dates for each exhibition will be dependant on other activities happening on the railway but will be advised here. Other ‘pop-up’ displays may also feature at times, particularly in connection with Gala events.
The Gallery
The Epping Ongar Railway opened the ‘micro-gallery’ at Ongar Station on Saturday 27 May 2017. The gallery is in the Ladies Waiting Room at the station. A railway volunteer and professional photographer who specialises in steam photography, Geoff Silcock, has worked alongside the Epping Ongar Railway Volunteer Society members to transform the room into a place to display photographs and pictures. Mr Silcock has worked with local photographic and historical societies to bring a programme of interesting and relevant exhibitions to the Railway.
The free bijou exhibition area has been named "The Penny Salon" and will be open whenever trains are running to provide interest for passengers.
The output of "The Penny Salon" consists partially of the well established work of Eastender Reg Batten, who achieved his 100th birthday before he passed away in 2014. Reg spent much of his leisure time from the 1930s until he was well into his 80s, recording images from the now bygone world around him, especially from around Essex; Malcolm Batten is the custodian of his fathers work, and continues the family tradition, with countless photographic images published in magazines, plus several articles to his credit, and with published books on related transport subjects; and Geoff Silcock, with well over 50 years overall involved in the pursuit of his passion for especially steam trains, including its related photography and railway journalism content, with over 100 published articles in specialist magazines over the last 25 years... Plus he assures everyone that he also found the time to spend over 45 years in the photographic "D&P" profession from the early 1960s...
The inaugural month through to 18 June 2017 hosted The Essex Monochrome Society with Black and White images mainly from in and around Essex, including steam trains. This was followed by an exhibition by the Ongar Historical Millenium Society titled "The Railway Comes to Essex". "Bygone Essex" was the third exhibition to be held in the gallery, and a further selection of Reg Batten's iconic images will appear in a future exhibition. The 2017 season concluded with a selection of images from by long- time steam photographer, troubadour writer, and former Sentimental Journeys charter organiser Geoff Silcock, entitled Steam in the Frame, taking viewers on a journey from 1961 right through to the present day Epping Ongar Railway.
Fry's Chocolate Cabinet
The c.1890s "Frys Chocolate" glass cabinet,that was gifted to the Epping Ongar Railway, and refurbished by Malcolm Batten forms an important part of The Penny Salon's presentation of artefacts allied to the main displays.
Why "The Penny Salon"?
The name "The Penny Salon" is taken tongue in cheek from the c. 1865 built station rooms other use as its original Ladies Waiting Room.
