Railfest (or Railway Festival) is a term used by

railway museum A railway museum is a museum that explores the history of all aspects of rail related transportation, including: locomotives ( steam, diesel, and electric), railway cars, trams, and railway signalling equipment. They may also operate historic e ...

s and

heritage railways A heritage railway or heritage railroad (US usage) is a railway operated as living history to re-create or preserve railway scenes of the past. Heritage railways are often old railway lines preserved in a state depicting a period (or periods) i ...

around the world on open days and special annual events. The events are usually fundraising-oriented, and also involved with showing features of museums and their contents not always available in normal visiting times. The term is found in the United States, United Kingdom and Australia for such events.

National Railway Museum

''Railfest'' is the name given to occasional railway festivals at the

National Railway Museum The National Railway Museum is a museum in York forming part of the Science Museum Group. The museum tells the story of rail transport in Britain and its impact on society. It is the home of the national collection of historically significant r ...

York York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. There was a Railfest in 2004, and another in 2012. The 2012 event was sponsored by

EMAP Ascential plc, formerly EMAP, is a British business-to-business media business specialising in exhibitions & festivals and information services. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index. History Ric ...

magazines ''

Rail Rail or rails may refer to: Rail transport *Rail transport and related matters *Rail (rail transport) or railway lines, the running surface of a railway Arts and media Film * ''Rails'' (film), a 1929 Italian film by Mario Camerini * ''Rail'' ( ...

'', ''

Steam Railway This tabulation is for periodicals which do not have their own articles. Magazines ''Australian Railway'' * * Published Trade News Corporation * Feb-Mar 1988 is Vol. 2 No. 1. * Last issue about #23 in approximately Aug 1992. * Size = ~A4 ''A ...

'' and ''

Model Rail ''Model Rail'' is a British railway magazine focusing on rail transport modelling. It was first published in 1997, after running as a supplement to ''Rail''. ''Model Rail'' is published 13 times a year. It contains articles about railways in ...

''.

2000

The 2000 event was promoted as being a celebration of 200 years of Steam.

2004

The 2004 event featured a ''Turbostar'' DMU, a ''Electrostar'' EMU, a ''Pendolino'' EMU and a Eurostar train.

2012

The 2012 event had the theme of record breakers, and featured exhibits such as * Prototype HST power car 41001 * HST power car 43159, which jointly holds the diesel rail speed record. *

LNER Peppercorn Class A1 60163 Tornado LNER Peppercorn Class A1 No. 60163 ''Tornado'' is a 4-6-2 steam locomotive completed in 2008 to an original design by Arthur Peppercorn. It is the first new build British mainline steam locomotive since 1960, and the only Peppercorn Class ...

GWR 3700 Class 3440 City of Truro GWR 3700 Class 3440 ''City of Truro'' is a 4-4-0 steam locomotive built in 1903 for the Great Western Railway (GWR) at Swindon Works to a design by George Jackson Churchward. It was partially rebuilt in 1911 and 1915, and renumbered 3717 in ...

LNER Class A4 4468 Mallard LNER Class A4 4468 ''Mallard'' is a 4-6-2 ("Pacific") steam locomotive built in 1938 for operation on the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) at Doncaster Works to a design of Nigel Gresley. Its streamlined, wind tunnel tested design allowe ...

, holder of the steam rail speed record. * ''Javelin'' EMU 395019 *

GNR Class N2 The Great Northern Railway (GNR) Class N2 is an 0-6-2T side tank steam locomotive designed by Nigel Gresley and introduced in 1920. Further batches were built by the London and North Eastern Railway from 1925. They had superheaters and pi ...

No. 1744

References

Railway museum events {{rail-transport-stub