Lappa Valley fan travels across Europe to share birthday celebrations with train namesake

Lappa Valley, near St Newlyn East is home to “The Duke”, which works on their 10 1/4″ gauge railway. It celebrated its 10th birthday with festivities over the weekend.

It was joined by another “Duke” also celebrating a tenth birthday – a young man by the name of Kaiden Duke.

Kaiden and his family first visited Lappa Valley in September, and since then he’s been asking to spend his tenth birthday at the attraction.

The family, who are currently relocating from Spain to Lanlivery even returned back to the UK a week early for the visit.

Amy, Kaiden’s Mum said: “We’re moving back to Cornwall and we gave him the option of either spending his birthday in Spain or coming back here – he chose Lappa Valley!”

Amy spotted The Duke shared his birthday weekend, and it was arranged for Kaiden to be a part of the celebrations.

“I went onto the website and I saw that it was The Duke’s 10th birthday too so I thought, wow, it’s fate, isn’t it?”

Kaiden was invited to be the guest of honour as visitors joined with Lappa Valley’s owner Keith Southwell to sing happy birthday to both Dukes.

Keith said: “Two Dukes with their tenth birthdays at the same time is such an incredible coincidence – and a great excuse for a double celebration!

“It was a pleasure to meet Kaiden and meet the whole Duke family. Thank you for being a part of our weekend of celebrations, and thank you to everyone who joined us”

The Duke locomotive was originally built for the now closed Wells Harbour railway. It joined Lappa Valley in 2021, where it now transports tens of thousands of passengers along the Newlyn Downs Branchline every year.

Kaiden said: “It’s pretty good having all those people singing to you, but it’s confusing having the same name as a train!”