Network Rail Corporate Archive

Today’s railway represents 200 years of engineering inspiration, innovation and determination; the work that Network Rail does today is the next chapter in this astounding story. 

The Online Archive

Through this online archive we will showcase and celebrate the heritage of today’s railway infrastructure and provide access to elements of the Network Rail archive. Access to the Archive will be provided through this website, and we will aim to publish new documents on a regular basis, to coincide with Network Rail activities, projects, significant events and anniversaries. You can read about our recent discoveries and projects in our blog and ‘Ask the Archivist’ questions about our collection. While at this stage in the project’s development we won’t be able to make records available on demand, we will try and answer your enquiries as fully as possible and work your requests into our programme for future publication.  If there is a feature of today’s railway infrastructure you feel should be celebrated, do let us know and we will do what we can to work it into our programme for future publication.

Our Engineering Inheritance

The Network Rail archive team manages documents from the very earliest days of railway construction. Bridges, tunnels, stations, cuttings and embankments designed and built by the nineteenth century’s most dynamic and pioneering engineers are still very much part of today’s operational infrastructure and original documents relating to them are still referred to by today’s railway engineers. The archive brings together documents that relate to our ‘engineering inheritance’, a collection that represents the development of the most significant structures, engineers and innovation on the railway from the nineteenth century to the present day