Preserved Railway Stock

Search Facility Background & Tips

Welcome to the Preserved Railway Stock search facility. Much gratitude must go to Mick Morgan for not only hosting this facility but also for his hard work & perseverance in keeping up with the many design changes I’ve made to the original database.

The search facility is for Preserved, Private & Industrial Railways, although Steve Best included all the remaining heritage type locos still on the main network. Also included are the industrial tug type shunters that are becoming common in mainline depots as well as other stock used for internal use only or long term stored.      

The Database contains Locomotives, including Narrow Gauge & Miniature down to 7¼” , Powered Stock such as DMU’s, EMU’s, Trams, Tube Stock, and also Cliff & Funicular Railways, Passenger & Non Passenger Hauled Stock, Plant, including Cranes, Track Machines, Trolleys, Road Railers & all Wagon stock.  

There are many different fields you can search on, either as a single field or multiple. The ‘Group Heading’ field will give you the option of selecting all records of a general type such as Locomotives, Coaching Stock etc. Alternatively you can fine tune this  by using the ‘Heading’ field, to select certain types, such as Mainline Steam loco’s or Pre Group Passenger Coaching Stock.

The ‘Number’ & ‘Name’ fields perform a wild search & will also search other number & name. Please be aware if you enter ‘1’ this will find thousands of records. In this case it’s recommended you try searching on something else, such as Builder or Location etc. The ‘Works Plate’ field also performs a wild search, while the others offer a drop-down menu. These hold a lot of choices but you can begin typing a few letters to advance the menu.

Some of the remaining search fields are ideal for finding a particular type of stock. You will need some knowledge in this area to find exactly what you’re looking for.

Once you’re happy with your search criteria you can further select a Search Order found at the bottom of the search panel. Click on Search Records to display the results. If you made a large initial search you can further filter by using the drop-down options in the grey boxes along the top of the search results. Also on this page you will see if a photo is available. To access this click on the link in the ‘County’ column and you will be taken to the full record page with further information.    

Locomotives are generally displayed with their final running number with other identities found in other number. Other items of stock are mostly displayed with their original identity, if known. If an item of stock is known not to carry a visible I/d, this will be noted in the status field. The last known name is also displayed. If this is surrounded by square brackets this indicates the name is no longer carried, even if the name was removed many years ago. In some cases the name may only be temporarily removed for security reasons.

This facility is meant as a guide and in no way suggests the content is 100% accurate. The non official nature of preserved railways & private sites makes it difficult to keep track of movements, which are frequent and even more so for areas like current status, livery etc.

If you do find something that needs amending, please do contact the editor team so they can make any changes.

Failing that, there is also a related IO Group that you are welcome to join.

Details can be found at: https://groups.io/     

Once logged in, search for the preservedstock group you will be able to filter, browse and send messages to like minded people, or send direct to preservedstock@groups.io  using your normal email facility.

Back to the Search Page.