The Friends of Vintage Trains is the volunteer support organisation for Vintage Trains. Friends of Vintage Trains was formerly known as Vintage Trains Society and prior to that as the Friends of Birmingham Railway Museum.
The Friends of Vintage Trains consists of members who want to offer support to Vintage Trains Limited (main line operations) and the Tyseley Locomotive Works. All members share a common interest to preserve steam and railway heritage for the current and future generations.
Funds raised by The Friends of Vintage Trains are donated to restoration projects, and to support the activities of The Friends of Vintage Trains, Vintage Trains Limited and the Tyseley Locomotive Works, including site projects. Alongside offering in-kind support for Vintage Trains, such as providing refreshments at the site tours and Town Halls and providing a contact form on the Friends’s web site for volunteer recruitment, we provide on-site support such as deputising in organising the security passes for VT staff and volunteers and for ad-hoc special projects.
The Friends have also taken the initiative in greatly improving the environment on Tyseley station, working in close conjunction with West Midlands Railway and the Shakespeare Line Rail User Group. Improvements since the Friends took the initiative for the station have included planting and tending the flower beds, installation of CCTV, regular litter-picking and platform tidying and working with the station master at Tyseley.
The Friends is also a member of the Birmingham Heritage Forum.
Membership subscriptions finance a newsletter and magazine, including ever-increasing postage costs, administration costs, maintaining a prudent working balance and making donations to Vintage Trains.
If more people join The Friends of Vintage Trains then it would be able to offer more financial help to the Trust for projects such as
- restoration & maintenance of Tyseley collection locomotives
- restoration & maintenance of the Vintage Trains coach fleet
- Tyseley Locomotive Works site maintenance & improvements
Please download the Friends of Vintage Trains leaflet (PDF, 342KB) which describes the work of The Friends of Vintage Trains and includes a membership application form for more details. The Friends of Vintage Trains Constitution (amended March 2019) (PDF, 335KB) is also available for download.