Old Dalby is a rural village with an active community. It has its own primary and pre-schools, Church, Scout, Cubs and Beaver Building at Queensway, and a retirement home, Hunter's Lodge. There are two pub/restaurants, the Belvoir Brewery restaurant and alehouse, and, from August 2015 after a closure lasting over a year, the ancient but refurbished pub 'The Crown'. There has been no post office for several years but Sunday newspapers are sold from the Village Hall and there is a "pop-up" post office service. For around 33 years, on the August bank holiday Monday, the village held a fête known as "Old Dalby Day" to raise money for charities connected with the village. The fête grew to feature many events and attracted visitors from many miles around. In 2019 insufficient volunteers were prepared to help organise the event and Old Dalby Day was suspended. In 2019 the prominent Turkey oak that stood at the village green was found to be diseased; it has been pollarded rather than felled outright. The Knights Hospitallers owned a preceptory in the village from the early 12th century. Traces of the historically important Dalby Preceptory are still just visible on the surface. The ancient carp ponds survive to this day. Before and early in the Second World War an Ordnance Depot was established to the east of the village serving as a storage depot for machinery, associated spares and tools. The depot closed in 1996 and now serves as Old Dalby Business Park. The camp that grew nearby to house the workers and military personnel for the depot was originally a series of Nissen huts housing nearly 3,500 soldiers and around 300 prisoners of war. These later became derelict and a housing estate developed there which is now a separate settlement known as Queensway.
Village hall
The village hall is located at the centre of the village and was originally a school house. is the meeting place of several local societies, including the, Wine Club, yoga classes, the crafters and a "drop in" mornings. Other events take place throughout the year. In 2018/9 the Hall was awarded a grant towards its refurbishment by the Heritage Lottery Fund. Events designed to further knowledge of the village's heritage and history have included a Feast Day with a visit from Tony Rotherham, a lecture on archaeology by Carenza Lewis and lessons in Edwardian dress and manners for children from the local school. In September 2019 several test mini pits were excavated throughout the village under the supervision of Carenza Lewis. Amongst the finds were an array of clay pipes, 8th century earthernware and, from near the long gone Queensway Camp guardhouse, a soldier's cap badge. The heritage group has, with the advice and help of English Heritage and Lincoln University, created an Archive to collate, record, digitise and archive a series of historical photographs and documents submitted by long term residents. This initiative is in progress and can be accessed via the .
Old Dalby is the location of the control centre of the former British Rail Research Division's railway Old Dalby Test Track, which runs between Melton Mowbray and Edwalton. It was established in 1970 to test the Advanced Passenger Train. In July 1984 the track was used to run a Class 46 locomotive and train into a stationary nuclear flask in order to prove the safety of the container. The test was recorded and reported widely enough to make Old Dalby famous for a while. A video of the test can be seen . As part of the privatisation of British Rail, the track was leased to Serco, with ownership passing from British Rail to BRB Limited. In the early 2000, the track was taken over by Alstom and electrified on the 25 kV overhead system in order to test the Class 390Pendolinos it was building for Virgin Trains West Coast. During this upgrade phase the centre of operations moved from Old Dalby to Asfordby where a depot was converted from the former National Coal Board's buildings. After the Pendolino project was completed in 2005, the line was mothballed. In February 2007Metronet, the consortium charged with renewing a large proportion of the London Underground's lines, announced it had taken over the test track for the testing of new London Underground S7 and S8 Stock. To accomplish this it electrified part of the line with third and fourth rail system but the original 25 kV line was also retained for future use.
