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In this episode we’ll be visiting two national railway museums, in Utrecht and York, a gala event at the East Lancashire railway, and riding on standard and narrow gauge heritage lines, the Sittingbourne & Kemsley Light Railway, run entirely by volunteers in Kent, and the STAR museum railway in the Netherlands, and along the way, discovering a replica broad gauge pioneer, running on rails 1945mm apart...

Links to all the railways and museums below:

Home Page - The East Lancashire Railway

Home of 80097 BR 4MT Restoration and Ivatt 46428 - Bury Standard 4 Group

The Class 56 Group – Class 56 Locomotive Preservation

National Railway Museum - York

Eurostar.com: Book Europe train tickets and holidays

Kom naar het Spoorwegmuseum | Het leukste station van Nederland - Dutch National Railway Museum in Utrecht, Netherlands

Home - Museumspoorlijn STAR - STAR Museum Railway, Stadskanaal, Netherlands

Sittingbourne and Kemsley Railway

This podcast is produced by Laura Raymond and presented by Alasdair Stewart and Sharon Gregory.

Our 'Making Tracks' music is with kind permission of composer and musician Richard Durrant. It is a unique piece inspired by the rhythm of the historic rolling stock on the Ffestiniog Railway on the scenic journey from Harbour Station to Tan y Blwch.

You can listen and download the full 'Tan y Bwlch' Ukulele Quartet here:

Thank you to voice artist David King - for the Railway Ride outs voice over.

Ukulele Quartet No. 1 "Tan y Bwlch"

Ukulele Quartet No. 1 "Tan y Bwlch" Richard Durrant · Single · 2019 · 3 songs.

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In this episode of Making Tracks with Alasdair Stewart, Sharon Gregory and Laura Raymond, we’ll be visiting Welshpool and Llanfair Railway a rural, narrow gauge light railway, built to develop the economy of a marginal hinterland in Welsh border country, hear from competition winner George Woodward, who at 14 years old, got to try his hand on the regulator of a steam locomotive for the first time. George won a driver experience in a Facebook competition run by the Rudyard Lake Railway.

Sharon Gregory is riding the rails in Yorkshire and taking in a theatrical spectacle, and I talk to one of the team for responsible for maintaining preserved multiple units, at Hastings Diesels, that occasionally tours the national railway network from its depot on the south coast…..

Links to the Railways and events mentioned in this episode:

Welshpool and Llanfair Light Railway

Sierra Leone National Railway Museum

Bishops Castle Railway - bcrailway.co.uk

The current run of the Railway Children at Keighley and Worth Valley Railway has sold out ( finished on Sept 7th 25 ) click here for link to the promo video for the event.

Rudyard Lake Railway Driver Experience Course ( the course included in our podcast had been won as a prize by our young person interviewed with no commercial link to this podcast)

Hastings Diesels Ltd

This podcast is produced by Laura Raymond and presented by Alasdair Stewart and Sharon Gregory.

Our 'Making Tracks' music is with kind permission of composer and musician Richard Durrant. It is a unique piece inspired by the rhythm of the historic rolling stock on the Ffestiniog Railway on the scenic journey from Harbour Station to Tan y Blwch.

You can listen and download the full 'Tan y Bwlch' Ukulele Quartet here:

Thank you to voice artist David King - for the Railway Ride outs voice over.

Ukulele Quartet No. 1 "Tan y Bwlch"

Ukulele Quartet No. 1 "Tan y Bwlch" Richard Durrant · Single · 2019 · 3 songs.

Send us a text

In this episode of Making Tracks we’ll take you behind the scenes of the 'Greatest Gathering' in Derby, England for a prestigious piece of the UK's Railway 200 celebrations. Engineer Alasdair Stewart meets some of those who made it happen, and speaks with a variety of people representing a fraction of the variety and scope of the UK railway family as the movement looks forward to the future.

All aboard for the Greatest Gathering!

Sharon Gregory goes on another 'Railway Rideout' to visit a rural tramway museum in the Glyn Valley in north East Wales.

Also in this episode, we pop along to a Rail Fair in the Sussex town of Lewes and chat to Nicholas Owen – the well-known broadcaster and former BBC and ITV newsreader. Away from the news desk, Nicholas has a lifelong passion for railways and is a dedicated volunteer on one of England’s pioneering electric railways. We’ll hear about his love of trains, his volunteering experiences, and what keeps him coming back to the rails.

On the way north to visit the Greatest Gathering, Alasdair passes through Kings Cross station – and between the statue of Sir Nigel Gresley and Platform 9 and 3 quarters…..visits an exhibition display of an LNER carriage of the future.

Links to all the events and railways mentioned in this episode below:

The Making Tracks Facebook page - please like our page and please do send any comments directly to Alasdair.

All Aboard The 'Train of the Future' | LNER

Glyn Valley Tramway - Museum at Glynceiriog

The Greatest Gathering Event Website including gallery

Enspired - Consultant engineers working to de-carbonise rail

Railway Challenge - IMechE

Loram - Leading the digital transformation of railway maintenance.

Ffestiniog and Welsh Highland Railways Prince 1863 at Alstom Greatest Gathering

The Ashover Light Railway Society

DB Cargo UK opens new ETCS training facilities - Digital signalling.

This podcast is produced by Laura Raymond and presented by Alasdair Stewart and Sharon Gregory.

Our 'Making Tracks' music is with kind permission of composer and musician Richard Durrant. It is a unique piece inspired by the rhythm of the historic rolling stock on the Ffestiniog Railway on the scenic journey from Harbour Station to Tan y Blwch.

You can listen and download the full 'Tan y Bwlch' Ukulele Quartet here:

Thank you to voice artist David King - for the Railway Ride outs voice over.

Ukulele Quartet No. 1 "Tan y Bwlch"

Ukulele Quartet No. 1 "Tan y Bwlch" Richard Durrant · Single · 2019 · 3 songs.