The Railway Work, Life & Death project is making valuable contributions to the heritage railway sector, bringing the social history of the railways to visitors, volunteers and staff. This pages details some of our collaborations to date, demonstrating their value and how other heritage railway organisations might make use of our resources or collaborate with us. We’re always open to working with heritage railways, so please get in touch with us to discuss how we can work with you.
What the Railway Work, Life & Death project offers heritage railways
The Railway Work, Life & Death project offers heritage railways ways to bring the social history of their railway to visitors, volunteers and staff. We have details of staff who worked on virtually every preserved railway in Britain in their pre-preservation era. They give a real insight into life working on the railways in the past.
Whilst accidents might not seem like a very visitor-friendly topic, our experience shows that people really engage with the human-interest stories. As part of our work with heritage railways we’ve researched the wider life stories of the staff, so they’re more than ‘just’ an accident. We can see the often extraordinary stories of seemingly ordinary people associated with the spaces of the now-preserved railways. Some feedback from work we’ve done with Didcot Railway Centre:
‘Enjoyed learning about the people’s lived experience of working on the railway – not often told’
‘Very interesting. Brings things to life!’ – Bill
‘Great to hear about the social history of railway workers. Very informative’ – Mark
‘Very good & informative, covering things you might not normally consider’ – Terry & Rebecca
We’ve developed our work with heritage railways by collaborating directly with organisations, tailoring things to each railway. We also work with the Heritage Railway Association. We’ve produced interpretation, including museum displays, leaflets, posters, and a walking tour.
Existing collaborations
To make this a bit more concrete, here are some examples of our existing collaborations with heritage railways:
Isle of Wight Steam Railway – coming soon!
If you are a heritage railway organisation and would be interested in finding out more, or thinking about how we might be able to help you, please get in touch. We’d be delighted to explore the possibilities with you!