Opinion and Answer 23 edition 41: Heritage Railway of History

Hi Folks, 

Good Sunday Afternoon everyone, It's time for another edition of Opinion & Answer. In today's edition, I wanted to highlight the heritage Railways that are preserved  around the world since the first attempt back in 1950. Please come join me and let me explain what defines "Heritage Railway" and what makes it a heritage railway.

-Conductor Wolf 

What is a Heritage Railway?

A heritage railway is a historic railroad that has been preserved to recreate railway scenes of the past. heritage railways are “local lines of interest” that run shorter distances unlike commercial railways which exist to transport passengers or cargo over long distances. Since being designated as heritage railway, many historical railways have rolling stock of safety restoration of historical steam locomotives and the historical recreation of 19th century 1st and 2nd class passengers cars and other rolling stocks. 

How does a railway preservation become a Heritage Railway?

Maintenance costs to restore damaged tracks or faulty steam engines became more of a burden and thus between the cost and frequency of repairs, many railroad companies were forced to retire their steam engines because they could no longer compete. But devoted railfans and steam enthusiasts feared the loss of these railways. 

Thus, the first effort of railroad preservation began in the mid-1950 when train enthusiasts assembled and started to combined their effort and funds to but unwanted train stations,tracks and steam engines from retired railroad companies. Which continued all the way to 1960 of which by that time many preservation organizations were formed as mainline steam travel ended and diesels took over the mainline.

3 Groups that Heritage Railways fall under

Please note: All heritage can fall into more than 1 of these groups. These set heritage railways apart from mainline commercial travel

1. Heritage railways are (typically) not-commercial entities.
2. Heritage railways are short excursions
3. Heritage railways bring history to life.

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And that folks concludes another edition of Opinion and Answer. We'll be back with another edition next Sunday. Please click on the link for further reading.

https://www.strasburgrailroad.com/blog/how-heritage-railways-preserve-history/