{"id":783,"date":"2021-11-11T15:53:20","date_gmt":"2021-11-11T15:53:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wis.co.uk\/blog\/?p=783"},"modified":"2022-05-06T11:26:13","modified_gmt":"2022-05-06T11:26:13","slug":"a-list-of-preserved-railways-in-britain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wis.co.uk\/blog\/a-list-of-preserved-railways-in-britain","title":{"rendered":"A list of preserved railways in Britain"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Whilst on holiday we visited the North York Moors railway near Whitby. I wondered what the longest length of preserved railway line is in Britain, and does someone have a handy list. The answer seems to be no.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So here is my list, which is neither complete, nor comprehensive. <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/List_of_British_heritage_and_private_railways\">For a complete list, see Wikipedia<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table><tbody><tr><td><strong>Standard Gauge lines &#8211; Name, where it runs<\/strong><\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\"><strong>Miles<\/strong><\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\"><strong>km<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><tr><td>West Somerset Railway, Minehead to Bishops Lydeard (near Taunton)<\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">22.75<\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">36.6<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Wensleydale Railway, Northallerton to Redmire<\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">22<\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">35<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>North York Moors Railway, Pickering to Grosmont (see below)<\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">18 <\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">29<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Severn Valley Railway, Kidderminster-Bewdley-Bridgnorth<\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">16<\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">26<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Mid Hants Railway &#8220;Watercress Line&#8221;, Alresford to Alton<\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">10<\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">16<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Bluebell Railway, East Grinsted to Sheffield Park (near Haywards Heath)<\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">11<\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">18<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Epping and Ongar Railway<\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">6<\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">10<\/td><\/tr><tr><td><\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\"><\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\"><\/td><\/tr><tr><td><strong>Narrow Gauge Lines &#8211; Name, where it runs<\/strong><\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\"><\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\"><\/td><\/tr><tr><td><em>Leighton Buzzard Light Railway (2&#8242; gauge narrow gauge)<\/em><\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">3<\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">5<\/td><\/tr><tr><td><em>Welsh Highland Railway (Caernarfon-Porthmadoc) (2&#8242; gauge narrow gauge)<\/em><\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">25<\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">40<\/td><\/tr><tr><td><em>Ffestiniog Railway (Porthmadoc-Ffestiniog) (2&#8242; gauge narrow gauge)<\/em><\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">13.5<\/td><td class=\"has-text-align-center\" data-align=\"center\">22<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Some trains on the NYMR run through Grosmont into Whitby, adding another 7 miles to the route. This would make the NYMR the longest preserved line in Britain, <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/North_Yorkshire_Moors_Railway#Overview\">as well as the busiest in the world<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Based on my very limited research, the longest length of preserved railway in Britain isn&#8217;t standard gauge, but is the combined WHR and Ffestiniog Railway. Thus <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Ffestiniog_Railway\">the oldest surviving railway company in the world<\/a> is also Britain&#8217;s longest heritage railway. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Whilst on holiday we visited the North York Moors railway near Whitby. I wondered what the longest length of preserved railway line is in Britain, and does someone have a handy list. The answer seems to be no. So here &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wis.co.uk\/blog\/a-list-of-preserved-railways-in-britain\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[21],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wis.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/783"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wis.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wis.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wis.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wis.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=783"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.wis.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/783\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":788,"href":"https:\/\/www.wis.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/783\/revisions\/788"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wis.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wis.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wis.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}