Vintage Carriages Trust
The Vintage Carriages Trust (VCT) is a volunteer body, based on the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway. It was formed in the late 1960s by a group of volunteers whose interest was in wooden bodied carriages. They could see that there was a need to concentrate on the preservation of these historic items which were in grave danger of disappearing due to the weather and vandalism damage and unsuitability for regular use on preserved railways of the day. The Collection held by the Trust is at present nine historic railway carriages, also three small industrial steam locomotives, and a collection of railway posters and other miscellaneous railway items. The Trust owns the Museum of Rail Travel at Ingrow - the first station from Keighley on the Worth Valley Railway.
BWLR - The Bredgar & Wormshill Light Railway
The Bredgar & Wormshill Light Railway, a delightful 2 foot gauge line tucked away in the heart of the Kent countryside, England, near the village of Bredgar in a richly wooded area of the North Kent Downs. On view in the engine shed there is a whole range of steam locomotives of varying gauges, freight and carriage stock, and other railway artefacts. A corner of the engine shed has been built to represent a pumping station with a working Victorian Steam Driven Beam Engine.
DRPS - Darlington Railway Preservation Society
The D,R,P,S is a small Organisation based in the 1829 Goods shed adjacent to The Darlington Railway Center & Museum. Founded in 1980 By Mr Barrie Lamb, the society owns a small collection of locomotives including W6 0-4-0ST Peckett 2412 Northern Gas Board No1 which operates on Regular steam days Hauling brake van rides on our 1/4 mile and Darlington built BR Standard 2MT 78018 currently under restoration in the main workshop.
SERA - Suburban Electric Railway Association
The Suburban Electric Railway Association (SERA) was formed in 1996, but was then called the Mersey & Tyneside Electric Preservationists as the group had the original intention to secure for preservation the Merseyside 503 and the South Tyneside EPB electric multiple units (EMUs). Both these aims were achieved within 8 months and the group expanded its aims over the next couple of years to promote the preservation of DC electric suburban trains from all areas of England. With this expansion of aims came a need to create a new identity that reflected the national scope of the group and so in 1998 the group changed its name to the Suburban Electric Railway Association. SERA has now assembled the largest private collection of electric multiple units in the country and they are all located at the Coventry Electric Railway Centre.
Stratford on Avon and Broadway Railway Society
The Stratford on Avon and Broadway Railway Society have a specific interest in reopening part of the 'Honeybourne Line' the last Great Western Railway main line to have been built. The line from Stratford-upon-Avon to Cheltenham was closed and dismantled in the 1970's. We are concentrating our efforts on the northern half of the line between Stratford upon Avon and Broadway. The southern section of line from Broadway to Cheltenham is currently being rebuilt as a steam heritage railway by the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway therefore protecting it from development.
Plym Valley Railway
The aim of the Plym Valley Railway is to re-build the 1.25 mile Marsh Mills to Plym Bridge section, of the ex-Great Western branch line to Launceston, via Tavistock. Our mainline is currently 652 metres or 712 yards long, from the southern terminus of the line at Marsh Mills up to a point that has become known as World's End. The original line climbed up through, what is now our station area, on a 1:100 gradient. To allow us to build a platform and run round loop at Marsh Mills, we re-graded the bottom section of the line, so that it is level through the platform and loop. The line then climbs on a short 1:60 gradient, christened the 'K2 incline', up to a point about 150 foot south of the Junction with the sidings, at No. 1 Point. We have a viewing area opposite the top of the climb giving visitors a view of the train as it comes out of the cutting, and over Marsh Mills North Junction. Unfortunately we cannot complete the northern end of the loop at present, as the sewage pipe and power cables serving the old M.O.D. depot, now owned by Princess Yachts, adjacent to the railway centre, are close to the surface at this point, and it will involve a major expenditure in order to culvert them, like the section under the mainline.
STEAM - Museum of the Great Western Railway
The Museum tells the story of the men and women who built, operated and travelled on the Great Western Railway - 'God’s Wonderful Railway' - a railway network that, through the pioneering vision and genius of Isambard Kingdom Brunel, was regarded as the most advanced in the world.
Mangapps Railway Museum
Mangapps Railway Museum is a privately owned working museum established on a farm at Burnham on Crouch, Essex. It features a ¾ mile standard gauge passenger carrying line, with restored stations, signal boxes and ancillary equipment removed from various sites throughout East Anglia. To operate the line the Museum has 10 steam and diesel locomotives and over 80 carriages and wagons, some of considerable historic and technical interest. To complement the working railway the Museum has a collection of smaller railway relics which is one of the largest of its kind in Britain. This collection contains historic items connected with every aspect of railway operation and has a particular bias towards the railways of East Anglia and railway signalling - in fact the signalling collection is believed to be the largest on public display in Britain.
DFRS - Dean Forest Railway Society
The Dean Forest Railway tourist visitor attraction - Preserved standard gauge steam and diesel trains in the Royal Forest of Dean, Lydney, Gloucestershire, UK.
NRM - National Railway Museum
The National Railway Museum in York, England, is the largest railway museum in the world, responsible for the conservation and interpretation of the British national collection of historically significant railway vehicles and other artefacts. The Museum contains an unrivalled collection of locomotives, rolling stock, railway equipment, documents and records.
Dolgarrog Railway Society
The Dolgarrog Railway Society aims to re-establish a small industrial railway line (with a rural flavour), at Dolgarrog, in the beautiful Conwy Valley, in North Wales. It also intends to preserve locomotives and rolling stock appropriate to the line.
The Oswestry Railway Centre
We continue to restore Cambrian Railways infrastructure - Cambrian (ex Tanat Valley) branch line, Oswestry South signal box, the Cambrian Social Club, the Goods Shed - now an Internationally recognised museum and visitor attraction of 20 years standing, and more.
NTHC - Nottingham Transport Heritage Centre
The Nottingham Transport Heritage Centre is the home of the preserved Great Central Railway in Nottinghamshire and is based in Ruddington alongside Rushcliffe Country Park. Along with access to nearly 10 miles of the ex. GCR mainline in Nottinghamshire, the Centre is host to a road and rail transport heritage vehicle collection, the Nottingham Society of Model & Experimental Engineers, a large model railway and the GCR Rolling Stock Trust. Ambitious plans are afoot to eventually reconnect the Centre and its section of main-line railway to the existing GCR based at Loughborough. This will provide visitors with the unique experience of travelling on one of the longest heritage railways in the UK in a realistic recreation of main-line travel of the 1950s and 1960s!
Buckinghamshire Railway Centre
The Centre boasts one of the largest private railway collections in the country with many steam locomotives. These range from express passanger types to the humble shunting engine. There is also an impressive collection of numerous interesting items of rolling stock. In 1968 the London Railway Preservation Society chose Quainton Road to establish its Centre. From modest early beginnings on a few metres of weed grown track the volunteer members of the renamed Quainton Railway Society have established the Buckinghamshire Railway Centre as one of the leading steam museums in the country - Covering nearly 30 acres the collection includes some 35 steam locomotives as well as examples of both diesel locomotives and multiple units. The large collection of carriages and wagons includes a 1901 coach used latterly in the Royal Train together with a specially converted vehicle from 1943 used as a mobile meeting room by Winston Churchill and General Eisenhower.
EVRT - The Eden Valley Railway
The original Eden Valley Railway Company was formed in 1856 at a meeting in Appleby, then the county town of Westmorland, to build the line between Kirkby Stephen and Clifton just south of Penrith). The line was built by Lawson Bros, Newcastle and formed a link between the Darlington and Tebay (The South Durham and Lancashire Union Railway, or Stainmore line), and Penrith, and opened to passengers on 7th June 1862. The line carried both goods and passengers for almost 100 years, but was closed as a through route by British Railways, despite strong local objections. The route over Stainmore closed in 1962; British Railways very quickly lifted the track, demolished Belah viaduct and other structures, leaving only the section from Hartley Quarry to Appleby open to carry goods traffic until October 1974. This included a section of the South Durham and Lancashire Union Railway near Kirkby Stephen. This traffic eventually went onto road transport, and then only the section from Appleby to Warcop was left, carrying goods to the Army training centre. The remaining branch effectively closed on 16th March 1989, but the track was not lifted over this 6 mile stretch. The Appleby to Warcop line had become overgrown and derelict. At both Appleby and Warcop the station building are occupied as private dwellings, the signal box at Warcop still exists and is now undergoing restoration. The yard at Warcop will provide a site for the storage and maintenance of locomotives and rolling stock. The bridges on this section are still in place, some will require attention before passenger trains can run over them again, the whole length of line will require work on fencing and drainage. The condition of the remaining track varies from quite good, some relatively new on concrete sleepers to worn out on rotted wooden sleepers. The Eden Valley Railway Society was formed in 1995 with the aim of reopening the remaining 6mile Appleby - Flitholme section.
