Great Rail Tales

<p>82-year-old Richard Woods was introduced to railway modelling when he was bought a Hornby OO as a young boy. This sparked a passion that took him to his local model railway club and eventually on to the Cavalcade...

<p>Rail historian and broadcaster Tim Dunn’s connection to the railways goes back to his grandpa who left Tim his many hundreds of railway books when he died when Tim was just a young boy. Tim read about the world...

<p>As a young girl Joanne loved spending time with her grandfather in his model workshop. He called her his “firecracker”. He died when Joanne was 13 and her love for the railway went on hold until one day when she was...

<p>John Simpson grew up surrounded by and travelling on the New York subway. His passion for trains today is an evolution from his boyhood love of Thomas and Friends that has taken him around the world.</p> <p>In this...

<p>The original fast food came from compulsory comfort stops on the early rail network where trains would stop for a few minutes and passengers would jump out, eat several courses in a few minutes and jump back aboard...

<p> </p> <p>From the genesis of the idea in early 2022 Emma Roberts has lived and breathed Railway 200 every day since. Early hopes of 100 events across the year quickly exploded into over 5000 celebratory activities...

<p>Mike and Gordon recall the role of the Railway Orphanages. The rail industry hasn’t always been the pioneers of safety they are today. In times gone by, the accident rate in the rail industry was much higher and...

<p>Sound recordist Adrian Greenwood discovered his combined love of trains and their sounds as a young boy standing on bridges watching freight trains pass underneath him and his father. </p> <p>In this special Great...

<p> </p> <p>When Ashington Station reopened in December 2024, having been closed as part of the Beeching cuts, the impact of the railway on this north east town has been more than ever imagined, it has been described as...

<p>Railway 200 has caused Clare Wildfire to reflect and reconnect with her ancestral legacy of industrialist Edward Pease, one of the leading lights in the launch of the Stockton and Darlington Railway. Edward Pease was...

<p>Folk singer songwriter Findlay Napier recalls writing “Firecracker”, a song he wrote about Joanne Ormesher as part of BBC Radio 2’s 21st Century folk project which this year celebrated Railway 200, turning rail...

<p>Driver and Permanent Way operative Steve Williams drives a train like no other in the country. With a top speed of 6.5 mph, a maximum gradient of 20% and with no connection between the engine and passenger carriage...

<p>The train is a place of reading says Dr Bob Nicholson, Historian of Victorian Culture. Time spent on the train has always been used as a time to read. Today that might be on a smartphone, but before news apps, audio...

<p>Sherin Aminossehe arrived in the UK as a young 6 year old girl. Her love of the railway was almost immediately piqued on a family holiday to Torquay. Today Sherin is an architect and an artist; it was a drawing...

<p>Talyllyn Railway volunteer Luke Ryan describes the history and heritage of the world’s first preserved heritage railway. Originally built to transport slate down from the North Wales mines it was also designed with...