Train Map UK

Steam & preserved lines

Heritage and preserved railways, on a map

Britain has one of the richest collections of heritage railways anywhere: lines saved from closure and run by volunteers, from full-size steam railways to little narrow-gauge lines along the coast. This map shows them in their own colour, so you can see where they run and how they connect to the network.

Open the map with heritage lines highlighted → Open the full map
Heritage railways in purple: the Ffestiniog and Welsh Highland Railways around Porthmadog in North Wales
Heritage lines in purple: the Ffestiniog & Welsh Highland Railways in North Wales
288
named heritage lines
1,237 km
of preserved railway
3,235
stations on the map

Heritage lines, in purple

Preserved railways are drawn in purple, distinct from today's green national network. Open the map with heritage lines highlighted and the standard network steps back, so lines like the Swanage Railway stand out clearly. You can also search a heritage line by name and the map will fly straight to it.

Full lines, not just fragments

Heritage railways are often tagged inconsistently, a running line here, a depot there, so a line can look broken on other maps. We propagate the heritage flag across every segment that shares a line's name, so a railway like Swanage shows in the heritage colour along its whole length rather than in patches. Narrow-gauge lines such as the Romney, Hythe & Dymchurch are included too.

Every heritage railway on the map

There are 288 named stretches of preserved railway on the map, about 1,237 km of track, run by around 120 railways. Every one of them is listed here, with a link to its own website and, where it sells online, its tickets. Pick a heritage line on the map and the same links appear on its card. Listing is free, and we are happy to add or correct a link: write to us from the contact page.

Search any of them by name and the map flies straight to it. Narrow-gauge lines are in here too, from the Romney, Hythe & Dymchurch on the Kent coast to the slate railways of North Wales.

Where the data comes from

Heritage lines come from OpenStreetMap, flagged where contributors have tagged a railway as preserved or as tourism/heritage use. As with the rest of the map, it is real surveyed data, not invented.

Once closed, now reopened

Many heritage railways are stretches of line that were once closed and abandoned before being reopened, and they often run through former stations that have been brought back to life. Switch those layers on to see the bigger picture. You can also watch live trains running on today's network, or see the London Underground in real geography.

Explore more

→ Open the interactive map with heritage lines highlighted → Find your nearest train station → Live train map: trains moving in real time → Disused & abandoned railway lines → Closed & former railway stations → Geographic London Underground map → The UK rail network by the numbers → About Train Map UK