Historical railway records

Traincestry

Trace the people, companies and rolling stock of the railways that built Britain — and beyond.

Traincestry is the historical rail-GIS: a researchable record of the people who worked the railways, the companies that ran them, and the stock that ran on them — linked to the map of the network as it once was.

What Traincestry does

People

Railway workers, engineers and officials, linked to the companies and lines they served.

Companies

Pre-grouping, Big Four and later operators — histories, dates and identities.

Rolling stock

The register of locomotives, carriages and wagons with their works and numbers.

Explore Traincestry

Railway people

Search the people record.

Railway companies

Browse the companies.

Rolling stock register

Find a locomotive or wagon.

Community archive

Contributed records and photographs.

Transcribe a record

Help unlock the archive.

Find your family’s railways

Genealogy starting point.

Historical rail map

The network as it once was.

Guided tours

Historian-led tours of the old network.

Data access

Open + licensed data for research.

Traincestry — questions

Is Traincestry open data?

There is an open, attributable tier for research and education, and a licensed value tier for commercial records, people and analytics. See the data access page.

Can I contribute records?

Yes — the community archive accepts contributions, and you can help transcribe existing scans.

More of the ecosystem

Heritage

Preserved lines, museums and heritage railways worldwide.

Museums

The cabinet of railway antiquities — every museum and exhibit.

Stations

Facilities, boards and details for every station on the network.