"seasonally on partial routes, unconnected to a larger network (or railway), and charge high fares in comparison with transit services; as a result, they focus on the tourist and leisure markets. During the 1990s and 2000s, however, some heritage railways aimed to provide local transportation and extend their running seasons to carry commercial passenger traffic. After the founding of the Edaville Railroad in Massachusetts by Ellis D. Atwood in 1947, the first heritage railway to be rescued and run entirely by volunteers was the Talyllyn Railway in Wales. This narrow gauge line, taken over by a group of enthusiasts in"
"Welsh Highland Heritage Railway The Welsh Highland Heritage Railway is a short reconstructed heritage railway in Gwynedd, Wales. Its main station is in Porthmadog. The origins of the WHHR lie in a small group of railway enthusiasts, including some disgruntled volunteers from the Festiniog Railway, forming the Welsh Highland Railway Society in 1961, to preserve and rebuild the original Welsh Highland Railway which had operated from 1922 to 1936. Construction of the line started in the 1970s following the acquisition of land from British Railways running alongside the Cambrian Coast line at Beddgelert Sidings. A substantial works and engineering facility"
"South Wales Transport attempts were made to preserve some rolling stock at the Middleton Railway. One car (no. 2) was saved for preservation by members of Leeds University in Yorkshire and stored at the Middleton Railway. However, it was heavily vandalised and eventually destroyed by fire leading to the tram being scrapped. Notes Bibliography Middleton Railway The Middleton Railway is the world's oldest continuously working public railway, situated in the English city of Leeds. It was founded in 1758 and is now a heritage railway, run by volunteers from The Middleton Railway Trust Ltd. since 1960. The railway operates passenger"
"industrial heritage, stepped in to save the failing Talyllyn Railway. This became the first railway to be run entirely by volunteers and sparked a movement to preserve many railways, both narrow and standard gauge as tourist attractions. Since then many lines have been preserved as working museums, and new narrow-gauge railways are being constructed for the tourist industry. In the 21st century a very few industrial and common carrier lines survive. Notable among the latter are the Glasgow Subway, an underground metro line that operates on a gauge, and the Manx Electric Railway on the Isle of Man. Amongst the"
"Welsh Highland Railway's restoration has a long, complicated and controversial history and includes several court cases and public enquiries. The origins of the WHRL restoration efforts, tentatively began in 1961 when disagreements within the volunteers of the Festiniog Railway and a group of like-minded railway enthusiasts, joined to form ""The Welsh Highland Railway Society"". This group is the precursor of what eventually became WHR Ltd., which owns and operates the Welsh Highland Heritage Railway (WHHR). Legal problems meant they were unable to take over the old company so, in the 1970s, the group purchased the former standard gauge exchange sidings"
"than 95% of its permanent way located in Wales. A number of currently operational Welsh heritage railways were also part of the historical Cambrian Railways, including the Vale of Rheidol Railway, the Welshpool and Llanfair Railway, parts of the Ffestiniog Railway, the Welsh Highland Heritage Railway, and the partially preserved Penmaenpool railway station. Cambrian Heritage Railways are widely publicised throughout Wales, and despite their English location, are preserving elements of significant Welsh railway heritage. In 1972, a group of enthusiasts established the Cambrian Railways Society (CRS), which obtained a lease from BR over the former Oswestry goods yard and Oswestry"
"an agreement signed in 1998 with the Ffestiniog Railway and allowed WHR Ltd. to run on the original Welsh Highland Railway trackbed for the first time. As part of the agreement, the section closed and became a construction site when the Ffestiniog Railway constructed WHR mainline from Caernarvon was connected in 2008. Welsh Highland Heritage Railway The Welsh Highland Heritage Railway is a short reconstructed heritage railway in Gwynedd, Wales. Its main station is in Porthmadog. The origins of the WHHR lie in a small group of railway enthusiasts, including some disgruntled volunteers from the Festiniog Railway, forming the Welsh"
"Bluebell Railway The Bluebell Railway is a heritage line almost entirely in West Sussex in England, except for Sheffield Park which is in East Sussex. It is managed by the Bluebell Railway Preservation Society. It uses steam trains which operate between and , with intermediate stations at and . The first preserved standard gauge steam-operated passenger railway in the world to operate a public service the society ran its first train on 7 August 1960, less than three years after the line from East Grinstead to Lewes had been closed by British Railways. On 23 March 2013, the Bluebell Railway"
"there are several examples of abandoned railway works in the pass. One scheme eventually succeeded and the Welsh Highland Railway was opened in 1922 from Dinas near Caernarfon to Porthmadog. The railway was closed in 1937 and the rails requisitioned and removed for War Department use in 1941. The trackbed remained in the ownership of the receiver of the company, and an iron girder bridge was left. Since then, the railway trackbed and its three tunnels had become a very popular path for walking and hiking. The longest tunnel was first built in 1906, but was not used by rail"
"but later operated by steam and electric trams. The Llandudno and Colwyn Bay tramway, demolished in 1956, has a preservation society which has restored some original carriages. Wales has a large number of heritage railways. Some of these were former industrial narrow gauge railways, such as the Corris Railway. Others were formed from portions disused standard gauge railways, either kept as standard gauge (e.g. Barry Tourist Railway) or converted to narrow gauge (e.g. Brecon Mountain Railway). Some of the narrow gauge heritage railways are marketed as the Great Little Trains of Wales Notable heritage railways include: The trunk road network"
"Welsh Highland Railway The Welsh Highland Railway (WHR) or Rheilffordd Eryri is a long, restored narrow gauge heritage railway in the Welsh county of Gwynedd, operating from Caernarfon to Porthmadog, and passing through a number of popular tourist destinations including Beddgelert and the Aberglaslyn Pass. At Porthmadog it connects with the Ffestiniog Railway and to the short Welsh Highland Heritage Railway. In Porthmadog it uses the United Kingdom's only mixed gauge flat rail crossing. The restoration, which had the civil engineering mainly built by contractors and the track mainly built by volunteers, received a number of awards. Originally running from"
"the Nant Gwynant Pass. Work was abandoned by the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, although the tunnels through the Aberglaslyn Pass were mostly completed. The name Welsh Highland Railway first appeared in 1921 when a 1914 light railway order (LRO) was processed. It was originally drawn up by the local Caernarfonshire authorities and aimed to link the PGSSR and NWNGR but had been delayed by the First World War. It was revived by two local politicians and a Scottish distillery owner, Sir John Henderson Stewart. In July 1921, Stewart also obtained control of the Festiniog Railway, in"
"appointed the company's Chairman. Preserved trains first ran over a short section in 1954, but after a diversion to avoid the new Ffestiniog Power Station reservoir, the line was fully reopened to passengers in 1982. A few years later it was carrying 200,000 passengers, the second largest Welsh tourist attraction after Caernarvon Castle. Many saw this as the result of Pegler’s drive and ability to inspire others with his unquenchable enthusiasm for fulfilling his dream. Pegler, who remained fully involved with the railway until his death in 2012, was appointed OBE in the 2006 New Year Honours in recognition of"
"1950, was the beginning of the preservation movement in the United Kingdom. The world's third preserved railway, and the second outside the United Kingdom, was Australia's Puffing Billy Railway. This railway operates on of track, with much of its original rolling stock built as early as 1898. There are 100 to 150 heritage railways in the United Kingdom, and similar railway-preservation efforts by enthusiasts can be found in many other countries in Europe and the Commonwealth. The large number of heritage railways in the UK is due in part to the closure of many minor lines during the 1960s' Beeching"
"in mid-May 1997 and this enabled the start of the second part of the reconstruction task, which was undertaken by Ffestiniog Railway subsidiary company Welsh Highland Light Railway Ltd assisted by very many volunteer groups. Foremost in this were the Welsh Highland Railway Society's volunteer ""Black Hand Gang"", ""Rest of the World Gang"" and ""Tuesday Gang"" who made a tremendous contribution. Many other volunteer groups made valuable tracklaying visits including teams from the Llangollen Railway and the Mid-Hants Railway. However, the gang that came from WHR (Porthmadog) as part of their """"Civils Week programme"""" set a remarkable record, for the"
"a company limited by guarantee in 1962, and recognised as an educational charity in 1963. Over the years, the society has drawn its members from people of all age groups and all sectors of the community, working together in different ways to create the tramway museum. After a sustained search across the country, in 1959 the society's attention was drawn to the then derelict limestone quarry at Crich in Derbyshire, from which members of the Talyllyn Railway Preservation Society were recovering track from Stephenson's mineral railway for their pioneering preservation project in Wales. After a tour of the quarry, members"
"the oldest surviving railway company in the world. It also owns the Welsh Highland Railway which was re-opened fully in 2011. The two railways share the same track gauge and meet at Porthmadog station, with occasional trains working the entire route from Blaenau Ffestiniog to Caernarfon. The railway company is properly known as the ""Festiniog Railway Company"" as this otherwise obsolete spelling (with ""F"" rather than ""Ff"") is in the official title of the company in the Act (2 William IV cap. 48) that created the railway. It is the oldest surviving railway company in the world (although not the"
"Middleton Railway The Middleton Railway is the world's oldest continuously working public railway, situated in the English city of Leeds. It was founded in 1758 and is now a heritage railway, run by volunteers from The Middleton Railway Trust Ltd. since 1960. The railway operates passenger services at weekends and on public holidays over approximately of track between its headquarters at Moor Road, in Hunslet, and Park Halt, on the outskirts of Middleton Park. Coal has been worked in Middleton since the 13th century, from bell pits, gin pits and later ""day level"" or adits. Anne Leigh, heiress to the"
"DVD in 2004. A release on Blu-ray in 2013 followed the restoration of the film. The Titfield Thunderbolt The Titfield Thunderbolt is a 1953 British comedy film directed by Charles Crichton and starring Stanley Holloway, Naunton Wayne, George Relph and John Gregson. The screenplay concerns a group of villagers trying to keep their branch line operating after British Railways decided to close it. The film was written by T.E.B. Clarke and was inspired by the restoration of the narrow gauge Talyllyn Railway in Wales, the world's first heritage railway run by volunteers. The name ""Titfield"" is an amalgamation of the"
"to Swansea. Today the group are working through a formal constitution and going through the steps to register as a Charitable body. Swansea and Mumbles Railway The Swansea and Mumbles Railway was the venue for the world's first passenger railway service, located in Swansea, Wales, United Kingdom. Originally built under an Act of Parliament of 1804 to move limestone from the quarries of Mumbles to Swansea and to the markets beyond, it carried the world's first fare-paying railway passengers under an agreement effective from 25 March 1807. It later moved from horse power to steam locomotion, and was finally converted"
"his own photographic ability, in the mid-1950s Whitehouse submitted a selected portfolio to the Royal Photographic Society, and in 1958 co-authored with John Powell published a book on the Tralee & Dingle. On 11 October 1950, as part of the Birmingham Railway Mafia, Whitehouse was one of the attendees at a meeting at the Imperial Hotel, Birmingham, called and chaired by his friend Tom Rolt to save the Talyllyn Railway, a narrow gauge slate railway in mid-Wales. At the end of the meeting, having agreed to form the Talyllyn Railway Preservation Society (TRPS), the world's first railway preservation society, Whitehouse"
"Railway Company and the Welsh Highland Railway Limited. The railway offers a short train ride in heritage carriages to (where there is a physical connections to the F&WHR) just under a mile away from Porthmadog. On the return journey the train stops at , which is the location of the workshops and museum, visitors can also ride on the Miniature Railway before returning to . The railway is mostly run by volunteers, who operate the trains and maintain the railway and its infrastructure. In 2014, ""Russell"" the only steam loco to survive from the original WHR, returned to service after"
"A major grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund permitted restoration of both original locomotives together with several coaches and original wagons, and provision of new workshop facilities, ready for the line's centenary. Locomotives of the preserved railway: Welshpool and Llanfair Light Railway The Welshpool & Llanfair Light Railway (W&LLR) () is a narrow gauge heritage railway in Powys, Wales. The line is around long and runs westwards from the town of Welshpool () via Castle Caereinion to the village of Llanfair Caereinion. The first proposal to connect Llanfair Caerinion and Welshpool by railway was the Llanfair Railway of 1864; this"
"Gwili Railway The Gwili Railway (Welsh: ""Rheilffordd Gwili"") is a Welsh heritage railway, that operates a preserved standard gauge railway line from the site of Abergwili Junction (near Carmarthen) in southwest Wales along a section of the former Carmarthen to Aberystwyth line. The original railway closed in 1965, with the track being lifted in 1975. The broad-gauge railway was opened in 1860 from Carmarthen to Conwil (now Cynwyl) by the ill-fated Carmarthen and Cardigan Railway Company (CCR), which fell in and out of insolvency until it was eventually absorbed by the Great Western Railway. Despite hostility from GWR, the line"
"Vale of Rheidol Railway The Vale of Rheidol Railway () is a narrow gauge heritage railway, opened in 1902, that runs for between Aberystwyth and Devil's Bridge in the county of Ceredigion, Wales. From 1968 until 1989, when it was the first part of British Rail to be privatised, it was the sole steam-operated line on the 1948 nationalised British Rail network. Unlike most other preserved railways in the United Kingdom, the Vale of Rheidol Railway did not have a period of closure between its being part of the national rail system and becoming a heritage railway, and so has"
"lifelong work was considerably helped by an inheritance from his family, without which much of his work could not have been done. In his formative years he had W. H. Auden as an English teacher and was taught mathematics and science by Geoffrey Hoyland, a qualified railway engineer, at The Downs School in Colwall. Boyd was an early volunteer on the Talyllyn Railway - the first volunteer-run heritage railway in the world. He organized the first regional working group of volunteers on the Talyllyn. Retiring from the textiles industry in the late 1960s, Boyd moved to Colwall and became a"
"service, which was replaced by a bus service, and it became a freight-only line. It was temporarily re-opened to passengers between 6 and 11 August 1945 for the Eisteddfod. The GWR itself was nationalised in 1948 and became part of British Railways. Freight traffic lingered on until 1956, by which time British Railways decided to close the line, with services ceasing on 5 November. A group of volunteers and enthusiasts took the line over and started raising money to restore it. On 6 April 1963 the western half of the line, from Llanfair Caereinion to Castle Caereinion, was reopened as"
"and Countess of Powys as the Earl did much to support the construction of the railway. In the Great Western era, ""The Countess"" had its name shortened to ""Countess."" ""The Earl"" and ""Countess"" ran the line from 1903 until closure of the railway in 1956. The engines were overhauled at Oswestry Works and were sent there on closure of the railway. By 1959 negotiations had begun with British Railways and the Welshpool and Llanfair Light Railway Preservation Company had leased the line from British Railways by the end of 1962. On 28 July 1961, The Earl returned after storage and"
"Corris Railway The Corris Railway (Welsh: ""Rheilffordd Corris"") is a narrow gauge preserved railway based in Corris on the border between Merionethshire (now Gwynedd) and Montgomeryshire (now Powys) in Mid-Wales. The line opened in 1859, and originally ran from Derwenlas, south east of Machynlleth north to Corris and on to Aberllefenni. Branches served the slate quarries at Corris Uchaf, Aberllefenni, the isolated quarries around Ratgoed and quarries along the length of the Dulas Valley. The railway closed in 1948, but a preservation society was formed in 1966, initially opening a museum; a short section of line between Corris and Maespoeth"
"has been preserved. In 2002, the line was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In the Deák Ferenc Square concourse's Millennium Underground Museum, many other artifacts of the metro's early history may be seen. In Britain, heritage railways are often railway lines which were run as commercial railways but were no longer needed (or closed down) and were taken over—or re-opened—by volunteers or non-profit organisations. A typical British heritage railway will use steam locomotives and original rolling stock to create a period atmosphere, although some are concentrating on diesel and electric traction to re-create the post-steam era. Many run"
"Railworld Railworld Wildlife Haven is a charity run place looked after by volunteers for all to enjoy in Peterborough. It is located beside the Peterborough Nene Valley railway station, but it is a separate organisation. Railworld has model railways, a nature haven and other exhibits. Founded in 1985 as Museum of World Railways (MWR), it changed its name in 1992. The centre is open only on certain days. All of the exhibits require extensive work. This has to be funded by the charity which is volunteer ran with no core funding. Railworld has an American Alco S1 switcher diesel locomotive"
"eventually became a roofless ruin. This section of the WHR was restored in 2000 and work began in earnest 2009 on restoration of the station under the leadership of by the late John Keylock and driven by the determination of a small band of volunteers from the Welsh Highland Heritage Group. The first part, reconstruction of a platform, was completed in Spring 2010, but the only train to stop there in 2010 was a single ""Sponsors Special"". In 2011 with the commencement of the main operating season, it became a timetabled request stop. Work on the building continued and was"
"cooperative consisting of volunteers was established in 1961 with the aim of securing the line for posterity. A 3-kilometer track at Sørumsand was given to the group along with two steam locomotives and some other stock. The first run as a heritage railway was undertaken in 1966. This stretch had no buildings or side tracks, and all facilities which meet the present-day visitor was built after becoming a heritage railway. Three of the steam locomotives and two passenger carriages were restored. When the heritage railway was established the terminus was just outside the town center of Sørumsand, with the track"