Thursday 18 Dec 2025
50,000th visitor boards unique travelling exhibition train
Popular and free Railway 200 attraction tours Britain until June 2026
A unique exhibition inside a train has welcomed its 50,000th visitor – marking a “major milestone” on its year-long tour of Britain.
Inspiration tells the story of railways – a British invention that changed the world – and is calling at 60 locations across Britain from June 2025 to June 2026.
This week, while visiting Southampton on its 28th stop, the 50,000th visitor explored its four carriages, which are packed full of interactive exhibits and amazing stories.
Inspiration is co-curated with the National Railway Museum and is part of Railway 200, a national year-long celebration marking 200 years of the modern railway.
The family-friendly exhibition train has already journeyed more than 6,000 miles, visiting as far north as the Cairngorms and as far south as Southampton, where it was welcomed with sea shanties and a beautiful mural commemorating the visit (see photos below).
Its most easterly stop has been Lowestoft and its most westerly stop Llandudno in North Wales.
Inspiration in numbers
28 stops across the UK
117 days open to the public
6,086 miles travelled
51,402 visitors so far
22,660 litres of recycled vegetable oil fuelling the train
Other highlights include being displayed in Derby at the biggest ever rail festival and Shildon, the birthplace of the modern railway.
Remarkably, the free-to-visit exhibition has been fuelled with 22,660 litres of HVO, a sustainable alternative to diesel made from used vegetable oil.
The first destinations on Inspiration’s 2026 tour have just been announced, including Preston, Cambridge, Salisbury and more. Even more 2026 dates will be released soon.
Emma Roberts, Programme Manager for Railway 200, said: “We are hugely proud to reach a major milestone for this travelling attraction: 50,000 happy visitors!
“We are truly thankful to everyone who’s visited so far, and we cannot wait to welcome even more people in 2026, including thousands more schoolchildren.
“It’s remarkable to think that railways, an invention dreamt up by brilliant British engineers 200 years ago, continue to connect communities across the UK and the world today.”
Nine in ten visitors say they would recommend Inspiration to a friend. They’ve described it as “fascinating”, “brilliant” and “interactive”.
For more details and to book tickets, visit the Railway 200 website.
Thousands more schoolchildren will visit Inspiration in 2026. Teachers can book free, bespoke trips with their class by emailing railway200@networkrail.co.uk.
Notes to Editors
Photos and videos
Please find general photos and videos of Inspiration here (credits in filename). Please find photos of Inspiration in Southampton here (credits: South Western Railway).
About Railway 200
Railway 200 celebrates two centuries since Stephenson’s Locomotion No. 1 steamed along the Stockton and Darlington Railway. The bicentenary kicked off on New Year’s Day 2025 with a ‘whistle-up’ of more than 200 locomotives across five continents. Thousands of events have since taken place, including a journey of a replica Locomotion No. 1 watched by 100,000; commemorative poems, coins and stamps; the world’s biggest rail festival; and much more.
Contact information
Passengers / community members
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Latest travel advice
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Journalists
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About Network Rail
We own, operate and develop Britain's railway infrastructure; that's 20,000 miles of track, 30,000 bridges, tunnels and viaducts and the thousands of signals, level crossings and stations. We run 20 of the UK's largest stations while all the others, over 2,500, are run by the country's train operating companies.
Usually, there are almost five million journeys made in the UK and over 600 freight trains run on the network. People depend on Britain's railway for their daily commute, to visit friends and loved ones and to get them home safe every day. Our role is to deliver a safe and reliable railway, so we carefully manage and deliver thousands of projects every year that form part of the multi-billion pound Railway Upgrade Plan, to grow and expand the nation's railway network to respond to the tremendous growth and demand the railway has experienced - a doubling of passenger journeys over the past 20 years.
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