Rolt and all the rest

Where would we be today without the efforts of railway preservationists keeping our history alive? Bob Gwynne highlights some of the key names and the roles they have played.

MAY 2024 was the 50th anniversary of the death of Tom Rolt, the engineer and writer who has been called ‘the patron saint of the leisure age’, and the event was marked by a conference and the publication of a long overdue biography. Rolt’s writing and activism normalised the idea that transport undertakings which seemed to have no place in the modern world – first canals and then minor railways – could have a future as working, living places that enhanced the lives of those involved with them. Today, there is surely no one else who has had both a locomotive and a ring road bridge named after them. The Talyllyn Railway (TR), which Rolt managed in its first years as ‘the first preserved railway in the world’ is careful…

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The Railway (Digital) - 1 Issue, April 2025

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