Do you have a Great Rail Tale?

Share your story of connection to the railway and be part of our Great Rail Tales podcast series.

  • Has the railway shaped your career and taken you places you didn’t expect?
  • Have you discovered new friends, passions or interests thanks to the railway?
  • Did you meet a significant person in your life on a train journey?

We’re collecting rail stories from people across the country, and we’re planning to share a selection of them on this website and on our social media channels over the coming months as we celebrate 200 years since the birth of the modern railway.

If you have a story you’d like to share, please use the form below to tell us about it. We’ll review all submissions and we may follow up with you if your story is selected.

A woman sitting on a train smiling wearing sunglasses waving the Union flag celebrating the Eurovision song contest

The Great Rail Tales podcast launching later this year will be a celebration of the people of our railways.

It’s a collection of short engaging, moving, funny and often surprising stories about our railway that cover all aspects of railway life, from the past, to the present and into the future. From the community heritage steam groups to the electrification of the future, from the commuters to the day trippers, from the guards and drivers to the engineers and coders. Railway people and their stories have helped shape our modern world and in Great Rail Tales, along with your help, we’re going to tell those stories.

Each podcast story can be anything from a couple of minutes, up to 15 minutes long.

How to get involved

We’d love to hear your Great Rail Tale so please tell us your story. To submit your story you can either fill out the form below and someone may get back in touch with you or you can record your own story and submit it to us. If you submit a recording, we may use it directly on the podcast or we may get back in touch with you to find out some more about your story.

How to record the best quality audio to send to us:
  • If you don’t own a microphone, see if you can borrow from a friend, neighbour or relative
  • Try to find the quietest place you can that doesn’t have any distracting background noises
  • Put your device into Do No Disturb mode to avoid and notification sounds while you are recording.
  • If you are using a mobile device, please place it in a stand, a tripod or on a pile of books to avoid your hand getting tired and hand rattle sounds on the recording.
  • Position the device microphone about 20cm away from your mouth
  • You’re now ready to record. Once you press record please wait 5 seconds before saying anything.
  • Start by telling us your name, whereabouts in the country you are and what is your connection to the railway.
  • When telling your story try to be descriptive of sights, sounds, smells, noises that are relevant.
  • Perhaps try to tell us what the railway means to you and why you love it so much.
  • When you have finished talking, please leave 5 seconds of silence at the end and don’t forget to save it before submitting it through the website.

* Not for publication - just so we can follow up with you about your story before publication

We recommend you upload your file in MP3 format, which is generally smaller
Types de fichiers acceptés : mp3, Taille max. des fichiers : 64 MB.
If there is any further information you want to provide about your story or context you want us to know, please add it here.
If there are public images or videos online (e.g. on Instagram or YouTube) which relate to your story which you are happy for us to use in illustrating your story on this website, please include links to them here. These should be materials you own and can give us consent to use on this site, with an appropriate link or credit.
Consent(Nécessaire)