Rocks by Rail is a living museum in the East Midlands. It has the only comprehensive collection of locomotives and rolling stock related to standard gauge quarry railways in the UK. The site today sits on a reclaimed quarry and runs demonstrations of past quarrying practices and methods on certain days of the year. On […]
The Clifton Rocks Railway is probably one of the best kept secrets of the Bristol area. This was an underground funicular railway which linked Clifton at the top with Bristol Harbour at the bottom. The funicular was opened in 1893 and despite a strong start, passenger numbers dwindled quickly and the railway closed in September […]
Warmley station used to be a small station on the Mangotsfield and Bath branch line. The station closed in 1966 due to the Beeching cuts but the station survives to this day as a café, serving refreshments to those who travel along the old railway route. The route has been converted to a cycle trail […]
It’s a lovely summers day and I’ve brought myself down to Bristol Harbour. Bristol Harbour used to have a network of track that spanned for 5 miles which connected the docks to the GWR mainline at Bristol Temple Meads. The railway opened in 1872 and remained in operation until 1987, although sections of the network […]
Tintern station used to be a stop along the Wye Valley Railway and was the closest it’s passengers could get to Tintern Abbey. The station opened in 1876 and was one of four original stations along the line. Although the track has long since been lifted, the station itself and artifacts are now all that […]
It’s a rather wet day in the Midlands and I find myself at Crich Tramway Village; the home of the National Tramway Museum. In 1959, the site looked very different as it was a typical disused quarry with spoil heaps, derelict buildings and loads of scrap metal. Since then the site has been rejuvenated with […]
It’s my final day up North and this last trip is something quite different. It’s a photography special on the Weardale Railway. The train travels the length of the line but stops off at 6 different points on the day that you normally wouldn’t be able to get access to. At these stops you can […]
It’s another day in sometimes sunny, sometimes overcast North Yorkshire and today we’re on the Wensleydale Railway. My visit took place on a Saturday however the morning services I caught were absolutely dead as you will see. Things did however pick up around lunch time as the incredibly popular Wensleydale Fryer was running (a service […]
My visit back up to the North coincided with a couple of special railway events, one of those being a shed tour at Grosmont station on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway. These tours don’t come around that often and tend to allow you access to areas of the railway which are out of bounds to […]
It’s day 2 of my trip up North and we’re at the Stephenson Steam Railway. This 2 mile industrial railway used to serve factories and businesses in the area when coal was king but now offers visitors a chance to step back to the past and learn about the pioneers of the railways; George and […]