Based at Milton of Crathes, not far from Aberdeen, the Royal Deeside Railway is a long trip for England based railway postcard collectors, but one which will be rewarded with a shop stocking eleven postcards of the line (August 2017). There is also a large range of greetings cards produced by a local artist. The relayed lines do not yet reach Banchory, but the short journey has pleasant scenery.

My recent visit to Brechin was the first time I’ve visited this railway. Why have I not gone before – it’s got so much that I love about preserved railways.

The people are really friendly, there’s steam and diesel, the two major station buildings are authentic and I had a great time. The shop at Brechin had four postcards.

Set beside the A1 north of Newcastle the Aln Valley railway has great plans. A lot has been already achieved with a loco depot and vehicle storage building already providing cover to several resident items of rolling stock. The current running line is very short but steam traction is provided most of the time.

The shop has a good selection of wares including three postcards featuring Richboro.

Second hand postcards were also to be found in a fund raising vehicle on site.

Located within a couple of miles of Dollands Moor, the Elham Valley railway centre isn’t what it first appears to be.

You find a visitor centre and a segregated railway “station”. Within the station area is a signal box and several buildings containing, a super museum, a shop, and a huge model of the channel tunnel together with construction artifacts. There’s a standard gauge tank loco on a piece of track and a miniature railway.

The visitor discovers that the site buildings are relatively recent creations, with the old line alignment crossing on an embankment through the centre of the site at right angles to the “station”. Even the petrol motor sounds from the 7 1/4″ miniature railway locomotive are artificial as it runs on a battery.

All in all well worth a visit, and they even print their own postcards. A visit in August 2017 yielded four cards but a fifth was out of stock.

Elham Valley train rides