Is your community rail partnership or station group interested in preserving important pieces of railway history and heritage at your station?

This new resource might be of interest to you.

Daniel Wright, former community rail support officer and current Community Rail Awards judge, is the author and editor of thebeautyoftransport.com and a long-time enthusiast for heritage artefacts at railway stations on the National Rail network. These artefacts are the small pieces of heritage which tell the story of the railway station where they can be found, as well as the railway more generally.

After recording hundreds of examples and finding that people were fascinated to learn about heritage artefacts at their own (and other) stations, Daniel decided to share his findings more widely.

Daniel set up the new website, ‘A Mainline Station Heritage Artefacts Collection’, to act as a photo register of heritage assets at stations.

He is keen for community rail partnerships and station groups to explore the site and get involved with recording their own heritage artefacts. Friends of Blair Atholl Station are one such community rail group that have already engaged with the project – their collection can be viewed here.

Daniel said: “I know that lots of Community Rail Network members are interested in the historical/heritage items at their stations, and, over time, new things will eventually become heritage assets too.

“Where members have installed murals, sculptures, history boards, memorials, signage, etc, these are also in the scope of the project. Anything that is interesting, permanent, and gives the station its own character, I’m interested in capturing.

“Instructions for how to take part are fairly simple, and can be found at: https://stationheritageartefacts.org.uk/join-in/.”

Find out more about the project and how you can get involved here.