The Greatest Gathering marks 200 years of railway history—but what does it say about the next 20 years? Amid the gleaming restorations and passenger legends, freight has a small and sobering presence—and that argues UK Editor of RailFreight.com, Simon Walton, says more about Britain’s transport priorities than any anniversary celebrations ever could.
Tucked into a corner of this magnificent line-up is the “Freight Focus”. It’s a compact and somewhat maguinalised exhibit that serves more as a footnote than a feature. A DB Cargo Class 60, a Freightliner 66, and a representation of heritage pieces. Interesting, yes. Celebrated? Not really. That’s a problem—not with the organisers, but with the industry mindset. Here, at the heart of British railway history, the goods that built the nation are practically a side-show.
25,000 vs 600: the numbers that matter
Standing here on Litchurch Lane under Derbyshire’s evening sunshine, you can’t help but be impressed. From Locomotion Number One to GBRf’s brand new ‘99, Alstom and their friends have assembled a once-in-a-generation collection of British rolling stock. Over 50 trains. Two centuries of engineering. A living timeline of rail innovation.
But for all the grandeur, what’s painfully clear is what’s missing. The extent to which freight made the railways necessary. True, there are few headlines (or ticket sales) to be earned from heavy hauls over Shap and intermodal innovation at the ports. Yet, it was rail freight that carried the nation from agrarian artisans to the industrialists who conquered the economic world.
Passing on the passion
The real story isn’t in the headboards or the polished paintwork. It’s in the timetable. Britain now runs about 25,000 passenger services a day, and a mere 600 freight trains. We have evolved from a country that built the railways to serve industry, to one that uses railways to ferry commuters between overpriced housing and underinsulated offices. Factories are few and far between – present surroundings excepted.
Alstom’s managing director in the UK, Rob Whyte, nevertheless, is quick to point out that there is much of which to be proud. That heritage of building trains transcends rail sectors. “Litchurch Lane is where generations of skilled workers have passed down their knowledge and passion,” he said. “We continue to invest in the future. I hope you feel inspired by the possibilities that lie ahead, not just for Alstom, but for the entire UK rail industry.” Certainly, seeing a nearly 70-year-old class 37 diesel standing next to a hardly 70-day-old class 99 is a rebuttal in shining metal that freight is sidelined in the modern railway.
Freight left behind
Derby through illustrates the radically different industrial landscape that awaits GBRf’s groundbreaking new locomotives. The stream of trains that once served heavy industry, and demanded the work horses of the 1960s, has vanished in the post-industrial 2020s. That situation reflects the wider state of the British economy.
There really is no consistent freight policy in the UK. We get strategy documents every few years, but no real commitment. Freight is expected to slot into a network built, planned and funded for passengers. The market is commercially strong but strategically unsupported. What was once the raison d’être of the railway now relies on goodwill, night paths, and a prayer that everything goes according to plan.
A mirror to a nation
The Greatest Gathering isn’t just a celebration of the past—it’s a reflection of the present. And what it reflects is a country that’s forgotten what the railway was for. We’ve become an island of importers and commuters, no longer a nation of manufacturers and movers. Even in Derby, the heart of railway production, we assemble trains with parts that have travelled further than most of the passengers who’ll ride them.
Not so, says Rob Whyte. He argues that Alstom at Litchurch Lane remains the only place in Britain where it’s possible to design, manufacture, test and deliver new trains. That much is true, but precious few of those trains are destined for the freight sector, and Britain’s remaining freight manufacturers are niche, rather than mass operators. The great works around the country no longer echo to the sounds of engineering production.
Not just nostalgia
It would be easy to dismiss this as romanticism, but it’s not. This is about strategy. About carbon. About resilience. Rail freight is cleaner, safer, and more scalable than road freight. Yet we treat it like a heritage act while pouring billions into passenger capacity. Freight policy is stuck in a loop. Ministers praise freight when asked, then forget it entirely when they sit down with the balance sheet.
Celebrating the past is easy. Planning for the future is harder. The Greatest Gathering is a triumph of preservation and pride. But if we want to be proud of British railways in another 20 years, we need to do more than polish locomotives. We need to back freight with policy, with investment, and with the recognition it deserves. Without goods, there were no passengers. Without freight, there was no railway. And without a plan, we may not have one much longer.