2027 Ultimate UK Railway Tour Celebration of Steam

Travel to London and meet at your 4-star hotel.

In the evening we will gather for a welcome dinner and get acquainted with your guides, fellow guests and Trains Magazine special guest.

After a leisurely breakfast amid the soaring Gothic architecture of the St Pancras Renaissance Hotel, we’ll board a private train bound for the Bluebell Railway — home to England’s first preserved standard-gauge steam line. There, an exclusive chartered carriage awaits with hors d’oeuvres for an elegant journey behind a vintage steam locomotive through the rolling Sussex countryside.

Back in London, the day rounds out with a visit to the London Transport Museum in Covent Garden, where two centuries of the capital’s transport history come vividly to life.

In the morning, we depart London by rail for the historic city of York, our base for the next three nights. From there, we make our way to Pickering, gateway to the North Yorkshire Moors Railway — a heritage line first laid in 1836 and now regarded as one of the most scenic train journeys in England.

Boarding a vintage steam train, we wind 24 miles through the wild beauty of the North York Moors National Park, passing through Goathland, the village whose station famously doubled as Hogsmeade in the first Harry Potter film, before arriving at the terminus in Whitby.

This atmospheric seaside town needs little introduction for fans of Gothic fiction: it was here, in 1890, that Bram Stoker found much of his inspiration for Dracula, drawn from the brooding ruins of Whitby Abbey which we will visit along with the 199 steps St Mary’s churchyard with it’s sweeping views over the town’s red rooftops and the sea beyond.

We’ll take the local train to Darlington, a town whose railway heritage runs deeper than almost anywhere on Earth: this is where the Stockton and Darlington Railway opened in 1825 as the world’s first public railway to carry steam-hauled passengers. Here, we have a very special treat in store — a private charter of Tornado, the celebrated LNER A1 Pacific, with footplate cab rides available for all guests. Completed in 2008, Tornado was the first mainline steam locomotive built in Britain since 1960, and fittingly, she was constructed right here in Darlington’s historic Carriage Works.

In addition to riding aboard Tornado, guests are free to explore Hopetown Darlington, the town’s heritage attraction spread across a 7.5-acre site where every historic building has its own story. At its heart is North Road Station Museum, set within a Victorian station dating to 1842, tracing Darlington’s pivotal role in the invention and engineering of the railway. Next door, the 1853 Carriage Works — the very workshop where Tornado herself was built — now houses an Exhibition Hall for rotating displays, alongside The Stores, home to a collection of more than 30,000 railway artifacts. And Darlington’s Skerne Bridge, just steps from Hopetown, is the world’s oldest railway bridge still in continuous use,

Today we travel aboard a dedicated West Coast Railways service to Carlisle and back, journeying over the Settle & Carlisle Railway — widely regarded as one of the most scenic rail routes in England. Our private Observation Coach, with light catering available throughout, will be attached to the train for the day, giving us unobstructed views as we cross the Yorkshire Dales and the Eden Valley.

Built by the Midland Railway between 1869 and 1876, the line is a triumph of Victorian engineering: 14 tunnels and 22 viaducts cut through the Pennines almost entirely by hand, by a workforce of roughly 6,000 navvies. Its signature structure, the 24-arch Ribblehead Viaduct, rises 104 feet above the moor and remains one of the most photographed feats of railway engineering in Britain. Further along, the train passes through Dent, England’s highest mainline station, before reaching the summit at Ais Gill — the highest point reached by any mainline train in the country. Threatened with closure in the 1980s, the line was saved by a determined public campaign and stands today as one of the great survival stories of British rail heritage.

At Hellifield, a working steam locomotive will be coupled on to haul us through the most dramatic stretch of the crossing.

In the morning, we visit the National Railway Museum in York — home to the largest collection of railway objects anywhere in the world. Highlights in the Great Hall include Mallard, holder of the world speed record for a steam locomotive at 126 mph, set in 1938, and the legendary Flying Scotsman, the first steam locomotive ever to officially reach 100 mph. Guests can also step aboard a Japanese Shinkansen “bullet train,” the only one on display outside Japan, and admire a replica of George Stephenson’s Rocket, the locomotive that helped launch the railway age itself.

After lunch at the museum, we continue by coach into North Wales, settling in for the evening in Caernarfon. Dominated by its mighty 13th-century castle, built by Edward I and now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the town carries a storied royal history: it was here, within the castle walls, that both the future Edward VIII (1911) and Charles, then Prince of Wales (1969), were formally invested with that title in ceremonies watched around the world.

We journey westward by coach into Wales where we spend our first day on the Ffestiniog Railway. Today’s journey will take us to Blaenau Ffestiniog from Porthmadog. The Ffestiniog countryside is notable for it’s striking slate mines and quarries which surround the town.

The scenery continually changes as the train crosses the estuary along the Cob embankment before climbing up the valley, through pastures and villages, then entering the ancient wooded slopes of the valley side. Shortly after picturesque Tan-y-Bwlch station, the train leaves the trees behind as it clings to the valley side. After rounding the spiral at Dduallt and passing through the tunnel, the train emerges beside Llyn Ystradau reservoir and the slate tips beckon.

After breakfast we’ll experience the Welsh Highland Railroad. Our train will steam through farmland and forest, crossing the foothills of Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon) before descending a steep hillside to pass the village of Beddgelert, through the magnificent Aberglaslyn Pass and across the Traeth Mawr (Great Estuary) to reach Porthmadog.

We’ll then continue on to The Ffestiniog countryside is notable for it’s striking slate mines and quarries which surround the town.

The scenery continually changes as the train crosses the estuary along the Cob embankment before climbing up the valley, through pastures and villages, then entering the ancient wooded slopes of the valley side. Shortly after picturesque Tan-y-Bwlch station, the train leaves the trees behind as it clings to the valley side. After rounding the spiral at Dduallt and passing through the tunnel, the train emerges beside Llyn Ystradau reservoir and the slate tips beckon.

Upon arrival in Balenau we will continue by coach to Bangor, where we will enjoy dinner before boarding a night train to London.

In the morning we travel by bus through the welsh countryside and Snowdonia National Park to reach the Vale of Rheidol steam railway where we will board for a one-way journey to Devil’s Bridge.

Upon our arrival we will continue by coach to Manchester, where we will gather a final time together for our farewell dinner, before settling into our final hotel.

Breakfast is included at the hotel. Guests are free to depart at their leisure for the Heathrow airport for flights home.