York Minster seen over trees and rooftops from the city walls
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Themed trip

Scenic railways and railway heritage

Heritage lines, great viaducts and railway museums.

5 stops on the map

Check timetables and operating days: heritage railways do not run every day.

The interactive map needs JavaScript. The stops are listed below.

Places: York, Manchester, The Cotswolds, Elsewhere in Britain. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors (opens in new tab).

The stops

Use the heart on any card to save a single stop to My trip.

  1. National Railway Museum

    Museum · Station and Museum Gardens

    National Railway Museum, Station and Museum Gardens
    Photo: Glen Bowman from Newcastle, England, CC BY 2.0

    A railway museum in York.

    Our guide to Station and Museum Gardens

  2. Liverpool Road Station

    Historic railway station · Castlefield & the Canals

    Liverpool Road Station, Castlefield & the Canals
    Photo: The original uploader was Pit-yacker at English Wikipedia., CC BY-SA 2.0

    A historic railway station in Manchester.

    Our guide to Castlefield & the Canals

  3. Broadway railway station

    Heritage railway · Broadway

    Broadway railway station, Broadway
    Photo: Martin Tester, CC BY-SA 2.0

    A heritage railway station in Broadway.

    Our guide to Broadway

  4. North Yorkshire Moors Railway (Pickering station)

    Heritage railway · Pickering, North Yorkshire

    24 miles through Pickering, Levisham, Goathland, Grosmont and Whitby.

    Official site (opens in new tab)

  5. Ribblehead Viaduct (Settle-Carlisle line)

    Railway viaduct · Ribblehead, North Yorkshire

    On the Settle-Carlisle line.

    Official site (opens in new tab)

Stops marked with an official-site link are outside our city guides. Each was checked against the operator's own page, and the location comes from OpenStreetMap. Check opening times and tickets before you go.

Planning this trip

The 5 stops fall in 4 parts of Britain, and the two furthest apart, Broadway railway station and North Yorkshire Moors Railway (Pickering station), are about 256 km apart in a straight line. Treat it as a menu rather than one journey: pick the stops in one or two destinations and give each a day or more.

  • York (1 stop): National Railway Museum. York guide.
  • Manchester (1 stop): Liverpool Road Station. Manchester guide.
  • The Cotswolds (1 stop): Broadway railway station. The Cotswolds guide.
  • Outside our city guides (2 stops): North Yorkshire Moors Railway (Pickering station) and Ribblehead Viaduct (Settle-Carlisle line).

To travel between destinations, see getting between regions and our rail tickets guide. For weather and daylight by month, see when to go to York, Manchester or The Cotswolds. Opening times change with the seasons, so check each stop's own website before you set out.

Access and family notes come from the same data as our area guides: 0 of the 5 stops are reported as fully or partly step-free, and 0 are marked family-friendly. Reports come from venues or OpenStreetMap contributors, so confirm with the place before you travel.

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