The Railway Heritage Trust is celebrating its 40th birthday this year. It is a not-for-profit company which awards grants to buildings and structures of railway heritage which are listed or in conservation areas, and which are Network Rail assets. In that 40-year history it has awarded over 2000 grants worth more than £70 million. Places which have benefited range from the Forth Rail Bridge in Scotland, to Peckham Rye Station in south London, and the recently opened Hopetown Museum at Darlington North Road Station.
To celebrate its 40th birthday, The Railway Heritage Trust has organised a travelling exhibition which can be visited at 5 locations across Britain during April, May and June. The exhibition features just 40 of those 2000 projects, and they show how looking after our railway heritage can transform those places for people and their communities. In this year of Railway 200, the celebration of 200 years of the passenger railway in Britain, it is important to show what an important part railways, and railway heritage in particular, plays in our lives.
Tim Hedley-Jones, Director of the Railway Heritage Trust said: “We are very proud of the long history of support which the Trust has made to railway heritage in Britain. We are pleased to be able to showcase 40 of the best projects we have supported that show how looking after our heritage can transform the lives of people, communities and the places where they live. Providing the grant is the easy part – putting together the plans, managing the work and ensuring railway heritage has a sustainable future is the hard part and we thank all those who have delivered these projects”.
The exhibition can be visited in the following locations:
- 7-18 April 2025: London Waterloo
- 23 April-2 May 2025: Bristol Temple Meads
- 7-16 May 2025: Aberystwyth (Vale of Rheidol Railway)
- 19-30 May 2025: York Station
- 2-13 June 2025: Edinburgh Waverley Station