Heritage railways

A heritage railway is a railway kept to carry living history rail traffic in order to re-create or preserve railway scenes of the past. Often heritage railways are old railway lines preserved in a state which depicts a certain period, or periods, in the history of railway systems.

Heritage railway lines contain historic rail infrastructure that has been substituted or made obsolete in modern railway transit systems. Historical installations, such as hand operated points, water cranes, and rail fastened with hand hammered rail spikes, are characteristic features of heritage lines. Apart from mere tourist railways, which carry mainly tourists and use only modern installations and vehicles, heritage lines' infrastructure naturally creates views and soundscapes of the past while operated.

Due to the lack of modern technology, or to a desire for historical accuracy, railway operations can be handled with traditional practices, such as the use of physical tokens. Use of heritage infrastructure and operations often calls for assigning roles based on historical occupations to the railway staff. Station masters and signalmen, sometimes wearing period-appropriate attire, can be seen on some heritage railways. Most heritage railways carry , but modern rail vehicles can be used to showcase railway scenes with historical line infrastructure.

While some heritage railways are fully profitable tourist attractions, many are not-for-profit entities; some of the latter depend on enthusiastic volunteers for upkeep and operations, to supplement revenues from traffic and visitors. Still other heritage railways offer a viable public transit option and can therefore sustain operations with a sufficient amount of revenue from regular riders or government subsidies.

Children's railways are extracurricular educational institutions, where children and teenagers learn railway professions. Often they are fully functional, passenger-carrying narrow gauge rail lines. This phenomenon originated in the USSR and was greatly developed in Soviet times. Many sites were called pioneer railways, after the communist youth organisation. The first children's railway was opened Moscow in 1932, and at the breakup of the USSR, 52 children's railways existed in the country. Even though the fall of communist governments has led to closures of these railways, many preserved children's railways are still functioning in post-Soviet states and Eastern European countries.

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