Heritage lines aiming for historical correctness

Hi there

I am looking for heritage lines in the UK with a declared target for presenting a true historical experience, and especially with a collection of coaches and locomotives representing a limited period of time, for example with all the stock in the trainset (loco and coaches) looking like in 1959, for the highest possible historical correctness. With that said, I would also be interested in railways trying to create a realistic experience, based on a certain year or limited period of time.

Greetings from Denmark
Jonathan

 

The Isle of Wight Steam Railway has all its rolling stock, and the majority of its currently operational locos, prototypical for the line, though currently broadly split in period (some representing the 1930s and some the 1950s). The stations are presented to show a transition from 1910s to 1930s to 1950s as you move along the line - a technique used elsewhere.

Other lines can do a good job of individual trains being a complete historical package, but the IoWSR is probably unique - at least on the standard gauge - in its ability to put out all the rolling stock and the majority of its engines as having been used in the vicinity in pre-preservation days.

Tom

 

Deleted

 

The IoWSR is a lovely line, and has some great engines which are appropriate to the line. I can hardly wait for the E1 to be restored to working order, and the Ivatt 2-6-2T locos will look right even though they didn't work on the island in BR steam days. But at off-peak times you are quite likely to get an industrial steam loco. That said, I quite like Austerities, but authentic to the island they are not!

John

 

Indeed, which was why I was careful to say the "majority" of its motive power was authentic, not all. No preserved line anywhere in the country can get it 100% right, but the IoWSR gets closer than pretty much any other, and a fair number of the inevitable compromises are on account of carrying more passengers now than in pre-preservation days and needing modern facilities to cope.

Tom

 

The thing is do you mean the feel of the train ie a engine in 1930's livery and the coaches also in the 1930's livery, or also the correct coaches which would do the day to day trains in that era, as places like the SVR will be able to do the first, but not latter as most of the coaches then would have been non corridor, and most likely two to three coaches long with a small to medium size tank engine .

 

Hello Jonathan

I have just returned from a week in Denmark, when I visited a number of your countries heritage lines as well as experiencing mainline steam from Helsingor, and had a very good time indeed!

The problem for most if not all UK heritage railways is that they have to operate a much higher level of service, certainly of passenger trains, than the line would have had when part of the network. Also, many lines were not preserved soon enough to be able to acquire the "right" stock to represent past operations, and of course freight traffic was a major part of the life of many lines (and indeed more often than not for lines now preserved, the original reason for them being built), but today only runs for demonstration purposes.

There are a small number of narrow gauge lines which, partly due to the limitations on what stock they can use, so have "the right trains", but these also have had to modernise their infrastructure and operate longer trains and build new, bigger coaches in some cases to deal with the passenger demand they need in order to survive.

If you go beyond the "totally authentic" combination of trains and railway, most heritage lines will have policies on the period being represented by Stations. Some lines have the same period throughout, but a number have different stations representing different eras. On the line I am involved with, the North Yorkshire Moors, we have a set period for each station, although we are also very poor at actually telling visitors this is the case! The trains passing through are nearly all from a different era however!. We are actually a Charity with the Object of educating the public in railway history, so we can properly argue that having a wide range of eras represented does this better than everything being as it would have been in particular year.

On the Standard Gauge lines, the Bluebell has probably the widest range of rolling stock and locomotives and can run a number of generally authentic (i.e. from the same era) trains amongst its collection. The Severn Valley Railway has trains from 3 of the 4 companies which operated between 1923 and 1948. In terms of recreating things as they were, the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway does particularly well, although again their trains are 5 coaches instead of probably 2 or 3 , certainly in later days, and they also use corridor coaches to allow on-train refreshments to be served which would have been unlikely to have been seen on the line - a common issue across many lines.

As part of a former mainline, the Great Central Railway is correct using corridor stock, but, like ourselves at the NYMR, has a wide range of locomotives that do not necessarily reflect the region (they are probably a bit closer than us!)

In fact, the educated visitor (i.e. some-one who knows what they are looking at!) probably prefers the variety and range of locos and carriages rather than total authenticity, but at the same time would be most pleased to get a picture or two that appears "timeless". ironically, such shots would probably often not include the train running on the day but be a detail of a restored station.

Steven

 

Yes, but most of the corridor stock would haven't stopped at all the local stations, as the non corridor trains would have done this most of the time.

 

Beamish... not strictly heritage lines but still using railways as part of an ethos to re-create aspects of historical scenarios.

 

To add to the list, K&ESR must be one of the most authentic.
Great vintage coaching set normally hauled by one of the two Terriers.

 

I'm afraid we're not that authentic to the original line. We occasionally make money....

 

If it's the authentic railway atmosphere you are looking for, then the Keighley and Worth Valley has the 1950s feel and does have some non corridor stock, for an overall experience then the Severn Valley is hard to beat with a number of country stations restored to pre 1948 condition and with luck you will get an authentic GWR train turn up, just check on what's running before you go. I would also endorse what has been said about the Isle of Wight Railway, a suburb little line. The Llangollen Railway is also worth a look with a good representation of post 1948 locos and rolling stock. The Bluebell is very much the same with as near authentic train formations both pre and post 1948 as you can get and immaculately restored stations.

I would avoid the Great Central, the current management are not interested in doing what they say in recreating an authentic main line experience and unfortunately one of its main benefactors is more interested in satisfying his own ego than railway heritage. BR Mark 1 coaches in spurious Pullman livery and a green 9F carrying a silly name is not what it should be about.

It's not a heritage line but on the mainline network it's as good as it gets in recreating the old steam railway, try a trip on the West Highland Line Jacobite from Fort William to Mallaig, runs May to October with the added bonus of scenery unsurpassed anywhere in the UK.

 

The South Devon Railway has the feel of a GWR branch line. I travelled on it last year for the first time in ages and thoroughly enjoyd the experience. On a good day, you can find some GWR carriages in use. Well worth a visit.

Jonathan, Don't let your quest for authenticity result in you bypassing some very good lines. To elaborate on Bean-counter's point, lines which were part of the LNER/BR Eastern Region have a real problem in being able to field authentic locos for the area because so many lines have relied on engines from Barry Scrapyard and only one LNER-design engine ended up there. Indeed, two of the NYMR's currenly operational LNER engines, Sir Nigel Gresley and 63395, are hardly typical power for passenger trains the line as it was in BR days either. However, the NYMR scores so highly on other points (signalling, scenery, gradients, stations, the through trans to Whitby and some LNER carriages to boot) that it would be a shame to give it a miss just because you might end up behind, say an LMS Black Five. I haven't visisted the North Norfolk line and thus can only reply on photos and what others have told me, but similar points apply here.

But get in quickly - the two-train service which includes the vintage set only runs daily in August. One-train operation usually consists of a Mark 1 set and you might end up with a Norwegian loco at the head. Still a very pleasant line.

 

Don't some heritage lines also model each station on their line to represent a slightly different era ?

As John says while not perfect the North Norfolk Railway gets quite close. The thing is it is now very easy to sit on You tube and judge each line for yourself as their are thousands of videos on there from UK heritage lines.

 

The Bluebell and the Great Central are two that do.

 

The Isle of Wight also do that.

In the Bluebell case, the transition is designed to progress through time as you pass along the line, from the 1880s at Sheffield Park, through the 1930s, 1950s to about 1960 at East Grinstead. One inevitable consequence of that is that even if we could reach a situation where locomotives and rolling stock matched, each train would typically only be "right" at one station and would be anachronistic - either too old or too new - everywhere else. But the educational benefit of having a range is seen to be preferable to fixing the whole line in one era and then still having a lot of anachronistic stock regardless of which era was chosen.

Tom

 

That is indeed the case, but how many Railways clearly explain to visitors that a particular station is set in a particular era and that others are set in different times?

 

The NYMR also have different stations trying to reflect different eras. This was probably my biggest achievement during my time on trust board.

Sawdust.

 

The Great Central certainly draw attention to this feature.

 

Isle of Man?