Great Rail Tales

When Rajinder Pryor joined the rail industry 20 years ago, she came through the Women in Rail mentoring programme. Today Rajinder leads that programme, giving back to all the women that have followed her over the past two decades.

To mark her 20th anniversary in the rail industry, Rajinder went on a very personal pilgrimage to her ancestral home in the Punjab, taking a Railway 200 teddy with her. Teddy became symbolic of the journey, her life and her relationship with the railway as they travelled around India to some of the nation’s most famous sites and landmarks.

Jack Rhodes was shortlisted for Railway Apprentice of the Year at the end of his 3 year apprenticeship with Alstom, where he is now just starting his engineering career in the rail industry. 

Following that, Jack was chosen to help seal the official Railway 200 time capsule into the Roundhouse at Derby.

The time capsule is packed with anniversary artefacts. It marks this year’s bicentenary and heralds a simpler, better and greener railway, driven by the next generation of pioneering talent.  The capsule will remain unopened for 50 years until the railway’s 250th anniversary in 2075. 

Smith of Derby have been making public clocks around the UK and rest of the world since the 1850s. If you have sought the time from an analogue station clock in a major station it is most likely a Smith of Derby clock.

In this Great Rail Tale, Professor Joe Smith talks about what makes him tick, the family business, its heritage, why they have one clock that is always wrong and why he believes that an analogue clock will always survive in a digital world. 

As Linda Brinklow steps down from her role as Chair of the Swale Branch of the Kent Community Rail Partnership, she reflects on a huge year of rail for the community of the Isle of Sheppey, its school children and rail users.

Inspired by Railway 200, YouTuber, Storyteller and documentary maker Riku has produced 2 films around key events and moments in the 200 year history of the rail industry. Their research and narrative has been strongly influenced by the late Ian Marchant; author, broadcaster and rail enthusiast.

In this Great Rail Tale, Riku describes how Ian inspired them and raised their hopes for the future of the railway.

82-year-old Richard Woods was introduced to railway modelling when he was bought a Hornby OO as a young boy. This sparked a passion that took him to his local model railway club and eventually on to the Cavalcade celebrations at Shildon for 150th anniversary of rail.

In this Great Rail Tale, Richard recalls that special day on 27th September 1975.

Rail historian and broadcaster Tim Dunn’s connection to the railways goes back to his grandpa who left Tim his many hundreds of railway books when he died when Tim was just a young boy. Tim read about the world through the lens of railway history and it ignited his life long passion for the railways.  His dad worked for British Rail as a surveyor and used to take Tim around the country looking at railway buildings.  For Tim, being able to tell the story of the railways and the people it connects is a great privilege.  Tim shares his joy for how people have expressed their passion for the railways and interpreted rail’s past, present and future during the Railway 200 year. 

As a young girl Joanne loved spending time with her grandfather in his model workshop. He called her his “firecracker”. He died when Joanne was 13 and her love for the railway went on hold until one day when she was commuting to work and saw a steam engine heading for Preston.

That was a sliding doors moment in Joanne’s life, the fire in her for steam engines had just been relit. Joanne went on to be the first women fireman on two heritage rail groups and today as a volunteer at Llangollen Railway she is training the next generation of firemen.

Her story caught the eye of BBC Radio 2’s 21st Century folk series and as part of the Railway 200 celebrations was turned into song, written by singer songwriter Findlay Napier. The song, Firecracker, tells Joanne’s love story for steam and her grandfather.

Listen to Firecracker on BBC Radio 2’s 21st Century Folk

Listen to Findlay Napier’s Great Rail Tale

John Simpson grew up surrounded by and travelling on the New York subway. His passion for trains today is an evolution from his boyhood love of Thomas and Friends that has taken him around the world.

In this Great Rail Tale, John describes how it was a visit to the Golden Spike celebrations in 2019 in Utah that made him make a pilgrimage to Shildon, County Durham in this year of national railway celebrations, joining many others from around the world. He recounts the thrill of witnessing Locomotion No.1 travelling on part of the original Stockton & Darlington Railway, the cradle of the railway worldwide.

The original fast food came from compulsory comfort stops on the early rail network where trains would stop for a few minutes and passengers would jump out, eat several courses in a few minutes and jump back aboard before the train pulled away.

These refreshment rooms as they became known gave birth to the railway inn and stations pubs as we know them today.

In this Great Rail Tale, author, rail fan and pub lover Bob Barton explores the evolution of the railway station bar and the growth of ‘Ale Trails’.