The UK’s defunct railway lines and steam trains splutter back to life
Seconds after a whistle pierces the air, the train comes thundering towards us, its engine rumbling away, its glossy red-and-black livery cloaked in rapidly expanding puffs of steam.
On a platform fizzing with anticipation, pensioners clutching steaming takeaway cups of tea are waiting to board with their grown-up children and even wider-eyed grandkids, who wear fake spectacles and dress like characters inspired by the day’s theme (sometimes it’s Thomas the Tank Engine, Christmas or Halloween; today it’s Harry Potter). While the wannabe wizards shuffle off to their designated seats, we regularly attired passengers enter another set of vintage carriages, where the vibe is less frantic, but still tingling with enchanting Hogwarts-style speaker music.
Puffing through history ... East Lancashire Railway.
As we chug into the countryside, our eyes are soon glued to the windows, eager for scenery that will deepen the train’s spell on us.
Britain’s heritage railways are ripe with memorable days out, particularly at weekends and during school holidays, when dozens of restored lines, operated by train-loving volunteers, splutter back to life. Some routes wend through the old heartlands of the Industrial Revolution, reviving tracks that were laid in the 1800s then axed the following century after the mills, factories, mines and ports went into decline. Unlike many bygone lines, which are remote and hard to reach without your own wheels, the East Lancashire Railway (ELR), which we’re riding, is more accessible.
Museum of all things rail.
Pockmarked with stops offering tantalising tastes, brews, sights and hikes, this 20-kilometre line courses just north of Manchester, a sporty, music-obsessed metropolis that also wows rail buffs (its Museum of Science and Industry spreads around the world’s oldest surviving passenger railway station, which serviced the world’s first inter-city line between Manchester and Liverpool in 1830).
Relaunched in 1987, the ELR has its own lovingly preserved Victorian stations, with neatly painted wooden and wrought-iron architecture, signal control boxes, retro clocks, posters and signage, stacked antique travel cases, mini-gardens and tea rooms. At Bury Bolton Street, the ELR’s principal station (a 30-minute tram journey from Manchester Victoria, followed by a short walk across town), there’s a smart craft ale bar and beer garden, The Trackside. You may recognise this station from TV. Production crews have shot several shows here in recent years, including the comedy-drama Feel Good, co-starring Lisa Kudrow of Friends fame.
Carving through the countryside.
The railway has a convivial, nostalgia-inducing atmosphere, buoyed by the uniformed station staff and ticket inspectors, with their broad Lancashire accents and the happily mingling multi-generational passengers (as well as cosy, cushioned private compartments, there are carriages with open seating and tables).
Trainspotters will appreciate the fine details of ELR’s rolling stock, which include steam engines, notably a shunter built in 1881, plus diesel engines from the 1950s and 60s. Guest locomotives from York’s fabulous National Railway Museum occasionally pop by for steam galas. In March, the legendary Flying Scotsman hauled services here on its 100th birthday tour.
On regular weekends, the ELR typically runs 12 daily trains (six in each direction). Its southern terminus, one stop from Bury, is Heywood, where you can picnic in the restored 19th-century Queen’s Park. But the line mostly threads north of Bury, where Greater Manchester’s urban sprawl meets the pastoral rolling farmland and rugged, windswept moors of Lancashire, the red rose county. Half the time, the train bobs by the River Irwell, a waterway that provided energy (and a dumping ground) for the area’s textile manufacturing industry from late Georgian times. Chimney-clad brick cotton mills sporadically steal your gaze. Some are derelict, others repurposed into new businesses and homes. A few mills are now heritage museums, with weaving machines still whirring.
With a Day Rover ticket, you can hop on and hop off at any of the ELR’s seven stops. At the half-way stage, Summerseat is a cute village with stone cottages, a couple of inns and pleasant woodland and waterside paths. Rawtenstall, the line’s northern terminus, is home to Mr Fitzpatrick’s, which is billed as Britain’s last temperance bar, founded in the 1890s to offer soft-drink alternatives to the hard-grafting, hard-drinking mill workers. At Rawtenstall’s spruced-up Edwardian market (Thursday-Saturday, 9am-4pm), butchers, cheesemongers and fishmongers trade beside haberdashers, artisan bakers and street-food purveyors conjuring the flavours of Lancashire, Mexico, Thailand and Japan. Bury has by far the area’s most bustling traditional market – often voted Britain’s best, with more than 350 indoor and outdoor stalls, and open daily (except Sundays).
Saturday market vendors add to the buzz of Ramsbottom, my favourite ELR stop, a picturesque old weaving and spinning town that hosts September’s annual world black pudding throwing championship. This tongue-in-cheek contest celebrates the centuries-old grudge between Lancashire and neighbouring county Yorkshire, with participants hurling black puddings, a local speciality, at a pile of Yorkshire puddings.
Teahouse for travellers.
Ramsbottom’s antique emporiums, boutiques and charity shops are worth a browse and there’s a fine selection of independent food and drink venues. Popular haunts include Irwell Works, a microbrewery and tap room, gastropub Eagle & Child and Italian restaurant Tre Ciccio. Perked up by flat whites at Grind & Tamp, we cross Ramsbottom’s steep high street for lunch at Colleen’s, a neat neighbourhood bistro, formerly The Hungry Duck, run by Australian chef Tom Morgan, who hails from Gippsland, Victoria. His seasonal menus star locally sourced produce, with dishes such as asparagus, blood orange and hollandaise; tarragon-stuffed chicken, salted turnips, mushrooms and bath chaps, and cherry souffle. There are excellent roasts on Sunday and good wine, cocktail and cheese lists.
You can walk off excess calories in landscapes you’ll have spotted from the train, from the Irwell Sculpture Trail – a riverside route enlivened with clusters of contemporary art – to grassy green slopes alive with grazing cows and sheep. A 40-minute hike above Ramsbottom is Holcombe Hill, distinguishable by the Peel Tower – a lofty landmark constructed in 1852 in tribute to Sir Robert Peel, the Bury-born founder of London’s Metropolitan police and a two-time UK prime minister. There are wide-reaching rural panoramas from up here, and in clear weather, you can make out Manchester’s increasingly shiny skyline.
Prefer to just stay on board? The ELR tempts with myriad train-based experiences, including gin and wine tastings, afternoon tea and fine-dining on polished Pullman-style carriages. They conduct murder mystery evenings where you can embrace your inner Agatha Christie as the train clickety-clacks through the Lancashire countryside.
THE DETAILS
FLY
Emirates fly to Manchester from Sydney and Melbourne via Dubai.
TRAIN
Day Rover tickets on the East Lancashire Railway are £17 ($31) for adults and £43 ($80) for families and include admission to the Bury Transport Museum, which exhibits vintage locomotives, buses, trams and more. See eastlancsrailway.org.uk
MORE
Five more steam railways in Britain
Keighley & Worth Valley Railway
Classic 1970 flick The Railway Children and its 2022 reboot were both filmed on this line, which rattles through West Yorkshire’s storied Bronte Country. See kwvr.co.uk
North Yorkshire Moors Railway
Pleasing stops on this rejuvenated railway include Goathland, the setting for the TV show Heartbeat, and Whitby, whose clifftop Gothic abbey featured in Bram Stoker’s Dracula. See nymr.co.uk
Ffestiniog and Welsh Highland Railways
Snowdonia’s mountains, oak forests, lakes and castles are the glorious backdrop to this dynamic duo. See festrail.co.uk
Bluebell Railway
This line really lives up to its name in April and May, when Sussex’s ancient, bluebell-carpeted woodlands spring to life. See bluebell-railway.com
West Highland Line
Skirting Scotland’s stunning west coast between Glasgow and Mallaig, this awe-inspiring railway traverses the Glenfinnan Viaduct, a marvel of engineering crossed by the Hogwarts Express in the Potter movies. See scotrail.co.uk
Steve McKenna travelled at his own expense.
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