The National Railway Heritage Awards with Andy Savage, MBE - Monday 12 May 2025.

Andy Savage MBE is both Chairman and a Trustee of the National Railway Heritage Awards, a Charitable Incorporated Organisation funded by a dozen rail bodies who cover its annual costs of about £72,000.

The 11 rail industry representatives on its board are all volunteers, even though two have relevant day jobs at the Railway Heritage Trust and the Heritage Railway Association. A couple of part-time contractors provide IT or other administrative support.

The Awards are an annual competition that invites entries from all parts of the UK, Crown Dependencies and the Irish Republic. Ten awards are made each year, each designated by a cast aluminum plaque. Objectives are the conservation and repurposing of historic railway buildings and structures and the public benefits that arises from new access and facilities. Locations may comprise closed as well as operational lines, and records are being digitized so as to be fully accessible through the website.

Each 14" x 10" plaque records the category of award, the sponsor, who owns it and why it was selected and who was the guest of honour making the presentation.

The origin of the Awards lay with railway publisher Ian Allan's concern as to the state of our heritage railways, starting with the state of the gents' toilet at Porthmadog on the Ffestiniog Railway. The directors responded by doing it up, and thus it was realised that this was the way to go, with the first round in 1979 funded by Ian Allan and British Rail confined to the heritage sector but presented by BR chairman Sir Peter Parker.

From 1980 they were taken forward by the Association of Railway Preservation Societies, with BR and London Transport stations and structures now included as a separate category. In 1983 there was a change of name to Best Restored Station, then in 1985 the new Railway Heritage Trust came on board thereafter working closely with the Awards.

By 1989 they were the Ian Allan Railway Heritage Awards with structures fully recognised alongside buildings, and an innovation in 1993 was to give a Special Award to Liverpool Street in recognition that it and other major London locations including Paddington and St. Pancras should be in a class of their own. With APRS taking a back seat, in 1995 they became self-standing as the National Railway Heritage Awards, attaining charitable status in 2000 for their encouragement of improvement and education which in 2023 became a Charitable Incorporated Organisation.

Each year's deadline is 31 May, usually accompanied by some last-minute chasing up of entries. There is no charge for entry, and the only commitment is for the winners to hold an unveiling. All entries are visited by two judges whose forms give an opportunity of rating from AA to EE, and these are then considered each October by an adjudication panel that brings in outside experts including representatives of Historic England, Historic Environment Scotland and other well-known people who assign the shortlisted entries by category. Their entrants are informed at the beginning of November and invited to the Awards ceremony held in the first week of December at the Merchant Tailors Hall, where the citations are nowadays read by RHT director Tim Hedley-Jones, and the presentation is made by a person of national standing including in recent years Princess Anne, the Dukes of Kent and Gloucester, the Secretary of State, Lord Mayor, Network Rail chief executive and eminent architect Ptolemy Dean.

Current sponsors comprise The Arch Company for urban heritage, Great Western Railway for operational enhancement, London Underground for craft skills, Translink for structures, RHT for conservation, Network Rail for volunteers, South Eastern for commercial development, BAM Nuttall for partnership, Avanti West Coast for community, National Highways for closed lines and Greater Anglia for best entry.

Notable recent winners have included restoration of fire damage at Troon in time for the 2024 Open, Bricket Wood repurposing as a community cafe, Alton Towers restoration of the tiled floor for holiday accommodation with the Landmark Trust, the complete rebuilding of Barmouth Bridge, the refurbished café at Leamington Spa for its art-deco feel, recognition to volunteers for restoration of East Coast Main Line mileage markers and Ffestiniog Railway 1830s slate mileposts, the commercial rebirth of Findlater's Corner near London Bridge as a Korean food supplier but with restored mosaics, the turntable at St Blazey that enables steam-hauled specials to visit Cornwall, the community revival of Okehampton Station and last year's best entry, a unique survivor at Wingfield that had been left to rot.

Each unveiling event celebrates a new use while recognising the efforts of all partners, thereby answering any charge about the railway neglecting its heritage and giving local publicity to commercial opportunities - while offering a sense of fun on the day. The Awards are forever seeking new volunteers, be they judges and advisers, administrators or those with IT skills.

Report by John Yellowlees.