2025 Winners

Review of the Year

In the year that we celebrate 200 years of the modern passenger railway, it is remarkable to note that the Awards have been part of that industry for 46 years, almost a quarter of the time. It is pleasing that there were nearly 60 entries received for the competition this year. Their strength shows how much success we have had in encouraging the conservation and re-use of our built railway heritage since 1979, and we look forward to continuing to do so up to and beyond our half-century. 

Entries received are spread widely across the country, in Scotland, Wales and England, with sadly none from Ireland this year. Entrants being a mixture of community groups, private individuals and companies, as well as public authorities, train and network operators. They range in size and scope; some took several years to plan and deliver and others less so. Images shown of completed projects often hide the enormity of what has been achieved by the entrants. Each were judged for the competition on their merits for the 10 award categories with an additional award for the best overall entry. A couple of entries received have been deferred because they were not ready for judging; hopefully we will see them re-entered for the competition when they are completed. 

More than half of the entries related to work done at stations, both open and closed. On the national network, Colt Construction Ltd with Network Rail entered their stonework refurbishment of the Grade I listed Newcastle Central Station and for the repairs carried out to the Grade II* listed trainshed roof at Filey Station, which is the last remaining G T Andrews designed one on the national network. At Coventry Station, Avanti West Coast replaced the original 1960s skylights that had weathered and degraded over time with an alternative design in keeping with the station’s original listed heritage. The striking restoration on the façade and the booking hall at Richmond Station by South Western Railway, Network Rail and London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. East Midlands Railway entered their refurbishment of Boston Town Station, Southeastern Trains entered their station refurbishment at Canterbury West Station and entered, with Network Rail, the restoration work done at Blackheath Station. 

Network Rail, AmcoGiffen and Keighley & Worth Valley Railway entered their renovation works to the Grade II listed Keighley Station in West Yorkshire; this is a fine example of a coordinated approach for work done at a historic railway junction station integrating modern commuter services with a thriving heritage railway. 

Smaller projects included several schemes such as that entered by Centenary Lounge Ltd for two projects: the creation of a 1960s inspired retail unit at Coventry Station and at Taunton Station with the creation of a GWR styled one. Similarly at Shrewsbury Station, the Gourmet Coffee Bar & Kitchen created a coffee shop in an unused storage space and featured the station’s decorative architecture. Southwestern Railway entered their sympathetic restoration of toilets at London Road Guildford Station and Network Rail at Matlock Station for their roof and chimney refurbishment. 

Network Rail entered the restoration of sash windows on the first and fourth floors of Caledonian Chambers, Glasgow Central, and their restoration of the former Station Master’s house at Robertsbridge Station to bring a long disused building back into a beneficial railway use as offices for themselves, and at Stoke-on-Trent Station the renewal work done to the glazed trainshed gable. 

Benedict O’Looney Architects entered two projects: firstly, with Network Rail for the restoration of Battersea Park Station platform canopies, and secondly, at London Victoria Station with Govia Thameslink Railway for the sensitive restoration of the London Brighton & South Coast Railway 1899 network and suburban line maps and faience surround. 

Other restoration and improvement schemes undertaken at operational stations were received from Southeastern Trains for the four statues’ restoration at Brixton Station. Network Rail with Northern Rail for the waiting shelter at Bootle Station in Cumbria. At 4 and 5 Crucifix Lane, beneath London Bridge Station, The Arch Company carried out work to restore the heritage frontages and create two arch units for commercial letting. At Whitley Bay Metro Station, Nexus entered their fine canopy refurbishment. 

Important work has been done by Community Groups to provide new uses for redundant buildings and regenerate and enliven operational stations which resulted in several entries. These encompassed the refurbishment of the Ladies WC and lobby at the impressive Art Deco styled Bishopstone Station done by The Friends of Bishopstone Station CIC. The Highland Main Line Community Rail Partnership entered the beautifully restored clock to its original setting at Dalwhinnie Station having been lost in 1927. In Aberdeen, the Ferryhill Railway Heritage Trust entered the renovation of the former railway offices and water tower at Ferryhill dating from 1850, which had been a derelict, roofless building, and re-purposing it as an exhibition and working space. Tyne Valley Community Rail Partnership entered the Water Tower outside Haltwhistle Station, a project to bring a disused historical feature back into beneficial use as a community asset. The Oswestry Station Building Trust entered their external restoration of the Grade II Listed former station building at Gobowen on the Shrewsbury and Chester line dating from 1848. 

Transport for London entered three projects. At Knightsbridge Station the important work to create step-free access by using the original lift shafts and passageways, with replica tile schemes based on the original Leslie Green station design; Queensway Station façade restoration, and at Harrow on the Hill Station, a scheme to restore station signage to its 1950s appearance. Transport for London  & Archirest Limited entered the restored decorative bronze display case outside Oxford Circus Station. 

Entries in a heritage railway setting included the sympathetic conversion of the water tank house at Keighley Station by the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway, where a visitor centre has been created in a derelict part of that structure. Shropshire Council entered their work undertaken in restoring the external fabric, including the roof, of Oswestry Station, the former headquarters of Cambrian Railways, a historically important Grade II listed building dating from 1864. 

The second largest category of entries related to structures with several joint entries: AmcoGiffen with Network Rail for two restoration projects, one for Burntisland Viaduct, on the Edinburgh-Dundee East Coast Route, a nine-span lattice truss girders and with sandstone masonry substructures built in 1888, and Glenfinnan Viaduct, situated on the West Highland Line, built in 1898 and constructed entirely from mass concrete by Robert McAlpine & Sons. Its other claim to fame is for its role in the Harry Potter films and the Jacobite Steam Train. Story Contracting with Network Rail entered their restoration of Awe Viaduct over the River Awe on the Crianlarich to Oban line south of Taynuilt. BAM Nuttall and Network Rail proposed their renewal and refurbishment work done with challenging access constraints to the Ponts Mill Viaduct near St Blazey in Cornwall. Network Rail entered their refurbishment of Evesham Station footbridge. 

Several significant viaduct and bridge entries feature on closed railway lines. National Highways for Bonnington Overbridge, a skewed cast-iron arch bridge, on the former Lanark to Douglas branch’s extension opened in 1873 and closed in 1965. Two entries near Leeds City centre: Monk Bridge Viaduct on the former Leeds & Thirsk Railway which now forms the centrepiece of ‘The Junction’, a new neighbourhood of 665 build-to-rent homes across five high-rise buildings and has been reimagined as an elevated public park drawing inspiration from the viaduct’s industrial past with the former railway use informing the layout. A few minutes’ walk away, MEPC Ltd nominated the restoration of the long disused Wellington Place wagon lifting hoist and creation of a mini museum. 

Our only narrow-gauge entry this year is from the Ffestiniog & Welsh Highland Railway who entered the extensive and impressive work done to restore ten buildings at their Boston Lodge Top Yard workshops near Porthmadog, being the oldest railway workshop in the world having been in operation across three centuries. All the original buildings are Grade II listed and within a UNESCO World Heritage Site. 

There were two Signal Box entries this year: Network Rail entered their refurbishment of Blea Moor Signal Box, on the Settle to Carlisle railway line, the most isolated signal box in England and Shrewsbury Crewe Junction Signal Box. The only other signalling entry was by the Highland Main Line Community Rail Partnership who renovated and re-erected in a public park adjacent to Pitlochry Station and Signal box, a Stevens Pattern Semaphore Signal post, formerly designated PT21 which was displaced from the Highland mainline signalling upgrade in 2020. 

Another important entry was made by the Science and Industry Museum in Manchester who entered their renovation of their warehouse roof and gantry, ready for the site’s 200th anniversary in 2030. 

Other entries received on former railway land includes the entry by Darlington Borough Council for their Hopetown Darlington transformative development of historic buildings in their 7.5-acre site next to the route of the Stockton & Darlington Railway which showcase Darlington’s innovative railway history. It comprises the Grade II* Listed North Road Station Museum (built 1842), the Goods Shed (built 1883), and the Carriage Works (built 1853). Also in the north-east, but on a much smaller scale, is the restoration work done by Carol and Mark Benson to the platform canopy on their former North Eastern Railway Ebberston Station dating from 1882 and in private ownership since 1955. 

There were several other notable entries: Folkestone Harbour Ltd for their already award-winning development of the former Folkestone Harbour Station by adding a splendid group of representative wagons which have been restored for use as restaurants, Locomotive Storage for the preservation of the former Departures Board from Euston Station relocated to the One to One Collection Building in Margate and lastly, the sensitive work done to clean and restore the Sir Edward Lutyens designed North Eastern Railway Workers War Memorial at York was entered by CML. 

The National Railway Heritage Awards online archive contains annual award entries, judges’ reports, photos, and relevant supplementary documents from our recent past. Until a few years ago all information was held in paper form but now in the digital age it is being scanned and uploaded as an on-going project so that as much as possible of the history of the Awards is available. We have taken care to prepare the documents and photographs in our archive for public access; you can find the archive online at: www.history.nrha.org.uk. If you have any comments relating to our online archive, please get in touch with us via the contact link on our website www.nrha.org.uk.