Top five railway attractions you'd like to visit

The Saggin Dragon mentioned the Virginia Museum of Transport at Roanoke, Virginia. A short distance eastwards and on the other side of the tracks is the former Art Deco passenger station. This is now the O Winston Link Museum. The impressive building and its railroad exhibitions should be included in any visit to Roanoke.
http://www.linkmuseum.org/

 

A number of mentioned Bowes, people do remember we exist. We are open the first weekend of every month, just around the corner from Tanfield, Beamish and North Tyneside! Hopefully trains again next year too...

 

K&ESR 20 years now
NYMR 30 years + and seem to be on most peoples bucket list.
KWVR Never been on the railway but have been in the VCT museum as this was all I had time for.
Tanfield Railway. Never been.
YDR 30 years +

 

I'm astonished that so many of you haven't been to all the lines in this country - it's only 300 miles or so from the south of England to the NYMR, for example!

My own bucket list would include Sandstone in S. Africa, the Denver & Rio Grande, the Darjeeling & Himalayan, Puffing Billy in Australia (been there but not since it was extended) and the Cairns to Kuranda in Australia. (Oh, forgot the Harz Mountain system)

 

Gwr boardroom blog has just published the TripAdvisor rankings for a large amount of heritage railways... http://gwrboardroom.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/tripadvisor-ratings.html

 

My current 5 are:
Pontypool and Blenavan (spelt wrong i know).
Rocks by Rail
Foxfield
Bonness and Kenneil
Middleton

 

Steam at Salta, Argentina
Mainline Steam in Australia
Mainline steam from Tokyo
Silvertown and Durango
Mainline steam in South Africa (How I've missed this Ive no idea)

in the UK, lines Ive not visited but have interest to are:
SRPS
Bowes
Preston Docks
Pontypool
Bodmin / Paignton / SDR (for all my world travels, Ive only been south of Exeter once in my life.. when I was 6).

 

There's actually a lot of railway interest around the sacramento area, you could make a railway holiday out of the area..

Woodland CA (about 20 miles from Sacto) has an 0-6-0 used to be operational when I lived there but is more of a museum now
http://www.svhr.org

Western Railway Musuem, (approx 1 hour) RioVista has a massive collection of trams, including a blackpool open top car
http://www.wrm.org

Niles Canyon Railway (Opposite side of the bay from San Francisco), has an SP 4-6-2 amongst other locomotives operates into the hills south of Oakland, they store some stock in a yard at the bottom of the bay bridge in Oakland
http://www.ncry.org

Further afield:

Western Pacific Railroad Museum, Portola, CA (About 2 - 3 hours north of Sacramento) - has a fantastic (and I mean very considerable sized) collection of Western Pacific locomotives and stock, as well as a DD40 and other stuff, very impressive place, in the absolute boonies.. you'll not pass many cars getting there, there's a UP line with quite a lot of freight in the vicinity.
http://www.wplives.org

Jamestown historic railroad - this is the one used in all the Hollywood films for a wild west town station, big log burner chimneys ! - nice collection and ride, some buildings are like old town sacramento too.. south of Stockton (about 2 hours), if on the way to Yosemite national park, this is a stopping point. (Yosemite is best visited in Spring to see the insane waterfalls off melting ice). Films here include Little House on the Prarie, and more recently provided the locomotive for Back to the Future 3.
http://web.railtown1897.org

Obviously must dos:
1. the trams in San Francisco, includes different historical liveried PCC's from across the US, a number of imported Milan trams and another Blackpool boat car.
2 the through Street operation of UP / California Northern through Jack London Sq in main street Oakland are natural must do's.
3. California Northern Shortline (A freight operator using quite rare GP15 diesels from Davis, CA they travel approx 60 miles north, freights tend to arrive Davis twice daily, in the AM (Shunts onto UP), collects late morning and then a second one later in the afternoon... trips through Woodland (mentioned above).

Sacto Railroad musuem sits in a restored wild west town, and operates (usually an 0-6-0 ), has been an S100 USA tank on some coaches with a diesel southwards for a few miles on a sunday, whilst the steam loco is somewhat economic, the diesel has been quite lavish including using SP E9 6051

There used to be some ex BR coaches in the area, but understand they've returned to the UK now, it included a Pullman car, observation car (by a warehouse in SF) and some LNER BGs in Stockton - there's at least 2 at Universal studios in LA, but there used to be 1 here.

If you need any advice let me know I lived in Davis / Sacramento / Oakland and San Francisco area for 5 years.

 

Just confining myself to lines I have NEVER visited, my top five would be (in no particular order):-

Llangollen
North Norfolk
East Lancs
Welsh Highland
Strathspey.

(I've never travelled on the Bodmin & Wenford yet, but did visit Bodmin Station in 1989 before it was operational, so this sort of makes it my top six. I'd also like to sample Irish main line steam. It does sound rather fun)

61624 said he was astonished that some of us haven't covered all the lines in the UK as our country isn't really that big. Good point, but some of us ask ourselves why should be travel 300 or 400 miles to see steam if we've got plenty of action nearer home? I lived for many years in the South East and London/the M25 did act as a deterrent from visiting lines up North. Anyway, it seems that even if you want to see a particular loco in action that is normally based a long way away, if you're patient, sooner or later it will turn up as a guest engine at a line just down the road.

 

Getting the notification for new messages in this thread prompted me to look at my original post, not sure how successful others have been but I've managed to cross off two since my original post!

 

In no particular order:

Great Central Railway - both halves.
Didcot Railway Centre
Swanage Railway
Ffestiniog Railway
Trip across the Forth Bridge

 

Top five (never been to them... yet)
1. Gloucs/Warks (might wait until open to Broadway)
2. Churnet Valley (if I can work out who owns what bit and where one might be able to travel - threads on this forum only serve to confuse me)
3. Barrow Hill
4. Welsh Highland
5. Llangollen
(Plus an honourable mention for the Dean Forest)

Top five (return visits, but haven't visited for at least 10 years, most 20+)
1. Didcot
2. Bluebell
3. KESR
4. IOWSR
5. Mid Hants.

Top five (visited within the past 10 years, but would like go back again sooner rather than later)
1. NYMR
2. RH&DR
3. Severn Valley
4. Strathspey (once they get to Grantown)
5. North Norfolk.

 

Great to see GWSR at the top of someone's list When we get to Broadway it should be even better, just a few years to go now, bridges sorted, 1/3 track purchased, all sleepers already in stock, station platforms almost finished, signal box getting there, main buildings to be started next year.

CVR is definitely confusing! I wouldn't worry about who owns what, but basically, Cheddleton - Froghall is the CVR's original line and main operating line, the other section with the gradients they run on selected dates only, so I'd go for one of those dates as you can ride on both sections.

 

Leekbrook Junction to Froghall actually see top of home page of website http://www.churnet-valley-railway.co.uk/

 

Oops First time I visited it was Cheddleton, it's stuck like that now!

 

Vale of Rheidol
RHDR
South Tynedale
Strathspey
Wensleydale

all new for me

Jon

 

I am afraid that I have been too busy helping to run a railway to visit all the 100+ lines in the UK despite the fact it is such a small place.

 

I would like to visit (and haven't for at least 10 years)
1. Welsh Highland
2. East Lancs
3. KWVR
4. WSR
5. GWSR

 

Pretty much what Alex said.

Main operations are centred on the 5.5miles between 'Kingsley & Froghall' and 'Leek Brook Junction', which is relatively flat along the valley floor.
Then roughly 1x weekend a month we run up the steeply graded Cauldon Branch for 5miles to Ipstones. Ruling gradient is 1in45 for the first 3 miles, "easing" to 1in59 for the final 2. So 5miles of solid work for both loco and crew!

 

Caledonian / Keith & Dufftown / Strathspey
> Never visited first 2, so like to just have a look around. Strathspey not visited since 3440 went up, and goes through some fabulous scenery. If only I lived closer!

Bowes
> On the to-do-list just never got round to it. Deserves the support after their recent struggles too.

Merseyside Tramway (Birkenhead)
> Used to work round the corner, but never visited. One day...

Chasewater
> For someone who spends a lot of time in Staffordshire this has missed my radar. Again one day...

Also future extensions I'm looking forward to are GWSR Broadway / WRHA Whitrope / Cambrian Oswestry.

Foreign stuff, I would like to one day return to the Harz plus also I do aim to get to Utrecht museum one day too. When the Big Boy steams that will also require a visit to the US.