South Leeds Life
Date: 17 November 2019

Not surprisingly, given its role as the birthplace of the railways, the UK is a global leader in the preservation, restoration and management of railway heritage. Railway museums, heritage sites and preservation societies can be found in every corner of the country and are active mainly through the work of nearly 20,000 volunteers.

During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries locomotives and rolling stock – both steam and diesel – were exported around the world including to the island of Taiwan. To this day you can find locomotives built in the workshops of Hunslet right across the globe. Now, Taiwan is embarking on a large-scale project to restore a huge railway workshop in its capital city of Taipei and to convert it into a National Railway Museum funded through the Ministry of Culture.

As part of this development programme, the Taipei Railway Workshop is sending nearly thirty of its expert staff to the UK on a special educational tour to visit railway sites and museums to learn more about the restoration, technical operations and the management of heritage railways.

The World’s Oldest Railway, Middleton Railway, will welcome Taiwan experts to its Moor Road headquarters on Thursday (21 November 2019) to see its operations and learn more about the ways it has developed.    [FULL  STORY]