A railfan or railway enthusiast and sometimes also called a trainspotter is a person interested, recreationally, in rail transport. Railfans of many ages can be found worldwide. To support the hobby in the United Kingdom, railway enthusiast societies or clubs were formed though many are now defunct.
Some railway enthusiast societies in the United Kingdom have been in existence for many years. One such long established society is Railway Correspondence and Travel Society. It was formed in 1928. [1]
The Industrial Railway Society was founded in 1949. [2] It publishes books for the hobby.
The Inter City Railway Society was formed in 1973. [3] It was a breakaway society formed by former members of the Dalescroft Railfans Club. [4] It publishes a monthly magazine called Tracks.
Southern Electric Group (SEG) was formed officially in May 1970. [5]
LCGB – The Locomotive Club of Great Britain. [6]
The Little Midland Society was formed in Chesterfield in 1967. [7]
Another extant society is The Engine Shed Society. As their name implies, they specialise in motive power sheds. [8]
The Heritage Railway Association celebrated its 60th anniversary on 6 January 2022. [9]
A now defunct society is Dalescroft Railfans Club. It was founded by Dale W. Fickes. This organisation ran road trips visiting motive power depots but also ran railtours. [10]
Another defunct society was the Railway Enthusiasts Society Limited -RESL. [11] This was also founded by Dale W. Fickes. This organisation mainly ran railtours. [12]
Buckley Wells Railway Enthusiasts went out of existence in 1969 following an over ambitious southern trip. [13] Many of the members then helped form NCTS -Northern Counties Transport Society. NCTS went out of existence in 1981 approximately. They published their own magazine. [14]
NCTS was formed from the also defunct BWRE Buckley Wells Railway Enthusiasts and the CRE East Cheshire Rail Enthusiasts. In 2020 it celebrated the 50th anniversary of its founding. [15] NCTS now has its own website to collect memories and photographic evidence from former members. It has actively solicited reliable information from other sources and archives too. This society ran road trips by coach and occasionally minibus touring depots. It was extremely common using this method to regularly see over 300 locomotives in a single weekend. Trips mainly set off from outside Manchester Victoria station on a Saturday evening and return later Sunday evening traveling overnight without hotel stops. They also ran some trips over four days with one overnight on the coach and two nights in hotel/hostel accommodation. [16] They produced a lapel badge (some of which are extant), that was a Class 47 in blue with the name of the society below.
The Longport Rail Enthusiasts, later the Harecastle Railway Society, were formed by a group of friends who attended Wolstanton Grammar School (Staffordshire) in the late 1960s. Headed by the late Paul Davies, and active until the mid 1970s, they organised a number of tours by bus and rail. The core membership still meet occasionally at Stafford Station.
Most societies publish their own magazines but some especially in the 1970s published spotting books including Dalescroft and NCTS. At one time up until the early 1970s, the market was cornered by Ian Allan. During the TOPS renumbering of the early 1970s, more speedily updated information was required by enthusiasts and so other publishers and enthusiast societies stepped in to fill the need and gap in the market. [17] This market was later cornered by Platform 5 publishing.
The North Norfolk Railway (NNR) – also known as the "Poppy Line" – is a 5+1⁄4-mile (8.4 km) heritage steam railway in Norfolk, England, running between the towns of Sheringham and Holt. The North Norfolk Railway is owned and operated as a public limited company, originally called Central Norfolk Enterprises Limited. The railway is listed as exempt from the UK Railways (Interoperability) Regulations 2000.
Conservation and restoration of rail vehicles aims to preserve historic rail vehicles. It may concern trains that have been removed from service and later restored to their past condition, or have never been removed from service, like UP 844, the only U.S. steam locomotive to never be retired. They are often operated in present-day service as moving examples of living history, as opposed to static exhibits. The majority of restored trains are operated at heritage railways and railway museums, although they can also be found on the main lines or branch lines of the commercial working railway, operated by specialist railtour companies or museum groups.
A railfan, train fan, rail buff or train buff, railway enthusiast, railway buff, trainspotter or ferroequinologist is a person who is recreationally interested in trains and rail transport systems.
Tyseley Locomotive Works, formerly the Birmingham Railway Museum, is the engineering arm of steam railtour promoter Vintage Trains based in Birmingham, England. It occupies part of the former Great Western Railway's Tyseley depot, built in 1908 to accommodate expanding operations in the West Midlands, particularly the opening of the North Warwickshire Line as a new main line from Birmingham to Bristol.
London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) Jubilee Class No. 5690Leander is a preserved British steam locomotive.
London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) Jubilee Class 5596Bahamas is a preserved British steam locomotive. It is named after The Bahamas.
London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) Stanier Class 5 4-6-0 No. 5110 is a preserved British steam locomotive. It has carried the name RAF Biggin Hill in preservation, though it never carried this in service. Number 5110 was built in 1935 by the Vulcan Foundry. It was built with a low-degree superheat domeless boiler and still carries a domeless boiler.
An excursion train is a chartered train run for a special event or purpose. Examples are trains to major sporting event, trains run for railfans or tourists, and special trains operated by the railway company for employees and prominent customers.
The Ocean Beach Railway (OBR) is a heritage railway that operates in Dunedin, New Zealand. It is located between John Wilson Drive in the suburb of Saint Kilda and sports grounds near Forbury Park Raceway, and runs parallel with the city's main beach, Ocean Beach. This is near where the Ocean Beach Branch once ran, but not on the same formation.
The Plains Vintage Railway & Historical Museum is a heritage railway and recreated historic village in the Tinwald Domain, Tinwald, New Zealand. The railway runs on approximately three kilometres of rural railway line that was once part of the Mount Somers Branch. The village and railway are open regularly to the public. The railway utilises preserved and restored locomotives and rolling stock once used on New Zealand's national railway network, while the village shows visitors how life was lived in New Zealand's pioneering past.
The Railway Preservation Society of Ireland (RPSI) is a railway preservation group founded in 1964 and operating throughout Ireland. Mainline steam train railtours are operated from Dublin, while short train rides are operated up and down the platform at Whitehead, County Antrim, and as of 2023, the group sometimes operates mainline trains in Northern Ireland using hired-in NIR diesel trains from Belfast. The RPSI has bases in Dublin and Whitehead, with the latter having a museum. The society owns heritage wagons, carriages, steam engines, diesel locomotives and metal-bodied carriages suitable for mainline use.
A railtour is a special train which is run in order to allow people to experience rail travel which is not normally available using timetabled passenger services. The 'unusual' aspect may be the route of the train, the destination, the occasion, specific sections of railway track, the locomotive hauling the train, the rolling stock, or any combination of these. Organisers may own or hire locomotives or rolling stock, or tours may be organised by railway management or other bodies outside the railway fraternity. Perhaps the most famous railtour in England was the Fifteen Guinea Special, the last steam hauled main line train run by British Rail. Railtours are often identifiable through the use of a train headboard, often identifying the name of the specific tour or the tour operator. On TOPS, railtours are usually given a 1Zxx headcode. Exceptions to this rule include regularly scheduled railtours such as the Belmond British Pullman operated Venice-Simplon Orient Express trains.
The Deltic Preservation Society is a railway preservation group based in England. The society is dedicated to the preservation and restoration of the remaining Class 55 "Deltic" diesel locomotives operated by British Rail from the 1960s to the 1980s.
Whittlesea railway station is on the Ely–Peterborough line in the East of England and serves the market town of Whittlesey, Cambridgeshire. Whittlesea is an older and alternative spelling of the town's name.
Birkenhead Dock Branch is a disused railway line running from the South junction of Rock Ferry, to the site of the former Bidston Dock on the Wirral Peninsula, England. The branch is approximately 4+1⁄2 miles (7.2 km) in length. Although called a branch, the line was accessible from both ends, from Bidston East junction and from Rock Ferry railway station. The former Mollington Street Rail Depot was branched into the line. A section of the line runs through Haymarket Tunnel and a low-level cutting through the centre of Birkenhead; visible from the road flyovers. The former Canning Street North signal box has now been demolished following fire damage, and the rails across the level crossing there have been removed due to the provision of cycle lanes on the roadway. The non-standard gates remain on the east side, but a fence has been erected on the other side despite the railway being officially out of use, rather than closed. Level crossings are also located at Duke Street and Wallasey Bridge Road. The railway lines are still partially intact.
Steam Incorporated, often abbreviated to Steam Inc., is a railway heritage and preservation society based at the Paekākāriki railway station, Paekākāriki at the southern end of the Kāpiti Coast, approximately 50 minutes north of Wellington on the west coast of New Zealand's North Island. Unlike some societies who operate on preserved sections of closed branch lines, Steam Incorporated owns a depot beside one of the country's most important railway lines, the North Island Main Trunk railway, and restores heritage locomotives and rolling stock for use on excursions on the regular national rail network.
The Railway Correspondence and Travel Society (RCTS) is a national society founded in Cheltenham, England in 1928 to bring together those interested in rail transport and locomotives.
4930 Hagley Hall is a Great Western Railway, 4-6-0 Hall class locomotive, built in May 1929 at Swindon Works to a design by Charles Collett. It is one of eleven of this class that made it into preservation. The locomotive is named after Hagley Hall in Worcestershire.
Angerstein Wharf is an industrial area and location of a marine construction aggregate and an associated cement facility and freight station in the Port of London, operated by the Cemex company, located on the south bank of the Bugsby's Reach of the River Thames in both Greenwich and Charlton, within the Royal Borough of Greenwich. It has safeguarded wharf status.