East Anglia Transport Museum

The East Anglia Transport Museum incorporates the East Suffolk Light Railway

Close to Great Yarmouth the site is packed with railway and other transport items.

The railway is run using Simplex diesels and a return trip lasts only a few minutes including a far end run around.

The two postcards available are shown above.

Well worth a visit.

Bekonscot – Beaconsfield

I paid my first visit here a couple of months ago. I don’t know why I hadn’t visited before because it’s great…

It’s a model village first constructed in the 1930’s with a significant railway theme. The ticket office is a BR mark 1 carriage. It’s a short walk from the station.

The signal box controlling the model railway is a treat.

Older postcards have been produced but the current offering is detailed below ( one is a wooden postcard):

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Bristol Harbour Railway

The Bristol Harbour Railway operates at certain weekends through the year and uses local Avonmouth steam tank engines to transport passengers along the dockside from a city centre location to the dock of Brunel’s SS Great Britain. There is a general transport museum located in warehouses beside the line that house a variety of exhibits with a local connection.

The museum shop does have a small selection of postcards from the Star Editions range featuring Bristol.

 

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The Amerton Railway

Just by the A518 between Stafford and Uttoxeter can be found the Amerton Railway. This ia a 2′ gauge line around a lake and  farm land.

Most of the locos have local Staffordshire connections.  There’s an interesting assembly of steam and diesels.

My Sept 2017 visit found three postcards for sale in the ticket office/shop.

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Royal Deeside Railway

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.

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The Caledonian Railway – Brechin

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.Scan_20171130 (2) Scan_20171130 (3)

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Aln Valley Railway

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.

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Elham Valley Trust

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

Elham Valley train rides

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Bishop’s Castle railway museum

The Bishop’s castle Railway and Transport Museum have a set of eleven postcards available. The cards are not numbered but are illustrated below:

 

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Full details of the museum can be found on their website www.bcrailway.co.uk

 

Summerlee transport Museum, Coatbridge

This is a very impressive transport and industrial heritage museum just outside Glasgow.  EMUs running through Coatbridge pass either side of the large estate occupied by this museum. There are vintage trams running from one end of the site to the other and several completely different exhibits to view. There’s a reconstructed coal mine, a street with all the houses in different decades and some fascinating engineering items. The star railway exhibit is a locally built Garratt loco outside in the rain a long way from it’s working life home in South Africa. This museum has been open for many years and has produced postcards in the past with railway content. Currently, the only postcard available is one of the Garratt. Entry is free and the facilities are very good.