News

• Global public to narrow down 200 railway-themed artworks to just 20 by voting for their three favourites
• The longlist features paintings, drawings and sculptures from almost 100 collections
• The final twenty artworks will be showcased in a digital exhibition hosted by Art UK, the online home of the UK's national art collection
• The public will then vote for their favourite railway artwork of all time as part of the Railway 200 campaign marking the railway’s bicentenary

The group of experts in rail tourism from UIC TopRail held its first meeting of 2025 in Madrid at the Spanish Railway Foundation (Fundación de Ferrocarriles Españoles), coinciding with the 45th edition of FITUR, one of the three most important tourism fairs in the world.

FITUR 2025, taking place from 24 to 26 January 2025 at the IFEMA Exhibition Centre in Madrid, brought together 9,500 companies from 156 countries, showcasing the offerings of 884 exhibitors across nine pavilions. Within this international environment, UIC TopRail took the opportunity to visit Renfe’s stand and explore new perspectives on the future of rail tourism.

• Biggest railway heritage mass participation event ever - more than 50 railways and up to 200 locos to sound off with whistles and horns to start year-long celebration 
• Overseas railways, train modellers Hornby, commemorative loco 910 and Thomas & Friends™ to join in.
• Public invited to get involved and share activity on social media.

A celebratory cacophony of train locomotive whistles and horns at midday on 1 January 2025 will signal the start of the 200th anniversary of the modern railway.

A railway in FNQ is after a Bendix TuFlow 1000 air compressor and a 6 inch Westinghouse air compressor for a steam locomotive.

On this World Tourism Day, the International Union of Railways (UIC) reaffirms its commitment to sustainable tourism as a tool for promoting economic, social and environmental development. Through different initiatives, such as TopRail and More Trains, UIC members have been working for a long time to promote rail as the backbone of sustainable mobility, acknowledging the importance of developing synergies between rail and tourism.

• Railway 200 celebrations on track, as Rail Minister heralds ‘exciting opportunity’
• International festival programme unveiled, inspired by journey that changed the world
• National rail sale, largest assembly of trains and rail exhibits, UK locomotive ‘whistle-off’, and much more!

.With just over 100 days to go until the start of a year-long celebration of 200 years of the modern railway in 2025, plans are being finalised to mark this historic milestone and explore rail’s past, present and future role in national life.

Dear Friends of Heritage Railways:

Wattrain (World Alliance of Tourist Trams and Trains, wattrain.net) - which I represent as its President - is preparing its 2024 Conference. The Conference is open to anyone interested in the future of the Heritage Railways around the world. Previous Conferences were held in Japan in 2015, in Frisco (Texas, USA) in 2018; the 2021 Conference was not possible because of Covid-19. 1. Place and date The Conference will be held in Castellammare di Stabia, just South of Naples (Italy). We expect the arrival of the participants on Friday, July 19, 2024. The Conference will start at 9.00 am on Saturday, July 20, 2024, and end at lunchtime on Sunday, July 21, 2024. The Conference will take place at the **** Hotel dei Congressi, Viale Puglia 45, Castellammare di Stabia (NA) 80053, www.hoteldeicongressi.it Phone: 0039-081-8722277; Whatsapp Business: 0039-345-2126092.

Dear Friends of Heritage Railways:

Wattrain (World Alliance of Tourist Trams and Trains, wattrain.net) - which I represent as its President - is preparing its 2024 Conference. The Conference is open to anyone interested in the future of the Heritage Railways around the world. Previous Conferences were held in Japan in 2015, in Frisco (Texas, USA) in 2018; the 2021 Conference was not possible because of Covid-19.

Read about Hobo Shoestring's riding the rails..

Sincere condolences to all affected by his sad passing.

https://hoboshoestring.wordpress.com/about/

https://www.terrapinn.com/RL2024/Wattrain

Rail Live 2024 is the congress edition and will be focused on high-level networking opportunities and high-level content. We’ll bring together a
diverse conference program featuring the most innovative technologies and projects in rail from around the World for this must-attend show.
Alongside this industry-leading conference, we are focused on creating opportunities for valuable networking to take place, through scheduled
meetings, off-site drink receptions and networking breaks