Alstom The Greatest Gathering: record charity rail festival

Alstom The Greatest Gathering charity event has generated more than £100,000 (€114,000) for good causes. According to Alstom, this turned the Railway 200 celebrations at Derby Litchurch Lane Works into a record-breaking railway festival for charities and heritage organisations across the UK.

This is reported by the railway transport news portal Railway Supply.

Alstom The Greatest Gathering and Railway 200 in Derby

Held at Alstom’s Derby Litchurch Lane Works from Friday 1 to Sunday 3 August 2025, the Railway 200 The Greatest Gathering Derby 2025 festival brought together what has been described as the world’s largest-ever line-up of historic and contemporary trains. Railway Supply has highlighted the event as a key Railway 200 milestone. Over three days, more than 40,000 rail enthusiasts visited the 90-acre rolling stock site to see over 140 rail vehicles, while a global online audience of millions followed the award-winning festival remotely.

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Marking 200 years of the modern railway, The Greatest Gathering also meant that the Derby facility opened its doors to the public for the first time in almost 50 years. For many visitors, this Railway 200 charity event became a rare opportunity to see historic and modern trains side by side at an active production site.

“Raising over £100,000 is an outstanding result and a testament to the generosity of railfans, partners and the hundreds of volunteers who made The Greatest Gathering possible. We’re proud that these funds will support national charities and the heritage organisations that keep Britain’s railway story alive,” said Andy Butters, Managing Director of Derby Litchurch Lane Works at Alstom.

Butters also stressed that welcoming visitors onto the Litchurch Lane site for the first time in nearly half a century was important for Alstom, for Derby and for the wider industry. In his view, the Railway 200 celebrations and Alstom The Greatest Gathering made it possible to honour two centuries of innovation in Derby, across the country and internationally, and the fundraising tally shows how strongly railway heritage continues to resonate.

Funds for national charities and railway heritage organisations

On Monday 8 December, members of The Greatest Gathering Organising Committee marked the fundraising milestone by presenting a giant cheque, symbolising the more than £100,000 raised through ticket sales, vendor fees and merchandise. In line with the plans for this charity railway festival, the proceeds will now be distributed between Railway 200’s five nominated charities — Alzheimer’s Research UK, Railway Benefit Fund, Railway Children, Railway Mission and Transport Benevolent Fund CIO — as well as more than 50 railway heritage organisations that took part in the event.

Jo Kaye, Chief Executive Officer of the Railway Benefit Fund, underlined how much this support means for the wider “railway family”. “We are immensely proud to have been included in this once-in-a-lifetime, record-breaking event, and we share this moment in history with the fantastic organising team. Supporting the railway family will always be our priority, and the proceeds raised will directly allow us to give the people behind the UK’s railways and their families a helping hand when they face difficult challenges, such as illness, injury or financial hardship. This will make a real difference right away,” she said.

Kaye also thanked Alstom and the organising team for creating an event that aims to inspire younger generations and showcase the strength of the rail community, encouraging young people to become the railway professionals of the future. In this way, Alstom The Greatest Gathering charity event functions not only as a fundraiser but also as a platform for promoting rail careers.

The Greatest Gathering official artwork and community volunteers

Alongside the fundraising announcement, The Greatest Gathering official artwork was unveiled for the first time. The centrepiece is a large oil painting by the event’s artist in residence, Tim O’Brien. The Nottinghamshire-based artist spent the entire festival on site painting en plein air, capturing in fine detail both the wide variety of rolling stock on display and the diverse crowds attending Alstom’s railway celebration.

More than 500 Alstom employees volunteered in support of The Greatest Gathering, and many of them joined the unveiling of the painting in J shop — a spacious open-plan office area at the heart of the Derby site. The artwork hangs beneath a prominent aluminium train headboard, produced specially for the festival by Chesterfield-based Newton Castings, which further points to the contribution of the wider rail supply chain to this record-breaking railway festival.

The painting was revealed by music producer and well-known rail enthusiast Pete Waterman OBE. As Charity President of the Railway Benefit Fund, he also brought his 64 ft-long OO gauge Making Tracks 3 model railway layout to the event. O’Brien’s artwork includes an image of Waterman, alongside other UK public figures such as broadcaster and former politician Michael Portillo and journalist and presenter Jeremy Vine, both of whom attended The Greatest Gathering.

The canvas additionally features the colourful participants of what has been described as the world’s first Pride parade on a train, which took place on the Saturday of the festival. This element underlines the community and inclusion focus of the Alstom railway festival and its role in engaging a broad audience around railway heritage.

Merseyrail Class 507 preservation, time capsule and awards

Derby Litchurch Lane, opened by the Midland Railway in 1876, is today one of the world’s largest rolling stock factories and the only UK site that designs, engineers, builds and tests trains for both domestic and export markets. The day after The Greatest Gathering closed its gates, the plant returned to production mode with preparatory work for the manufacture of new Elizabeth line trains, ahead of the production line starting up two months later.

Following the ceremony in J shop, Alstom staff were invited to the site’s 1.6 km-long test track. There, they became some of the first people to ride in preservation on one of the festival’s exhibits: former Merseyrail Class 507 unit No. 507001, which carried Queen Elizabeth II when she officially opened the Merseyrail network in 1978.

After 46 years of service, the unit was withdrawn in November 2024 and then acquired by the Class 507 Preservation Society for just £1. Volunteers and Alstom apprentices are now carefully restoring the three-car train before it relocates to a permanent base. This Merseyrail Class 507 preservation project will also receive a share of The Greatest Gathering proceeds to support its future heritage work.

Earlier the same day, Alstom took part in a time capsule burial ceremony at Derby Roundhouse, together with representatives from Derby College and Railway 200. The Roundhouse, built in 1839 on the site of the former Midland Railway Locomotive Works, today forms the centrepiece of Derby College’s Roundhouse Campus. Jack Rhodes, an Advanced Apprentice at Alstom, was invited to speak at the ceremony, which further underlined both the railway bicentenary and Derby’s long-standing role as a hub of rail manufacturing and innovation.

Looking back on the anniversary programme, Rhodes noted that the Railway 200 events throughout 2025 — and The Greatest Gathering in particular — had been unforgettable. Seeing so many historic and modern trains assembled at his workplace, he explained, was a strong reminder of how far the industry has come and how promising its future appears. He described it as an honour to contribute to a record-breaking event that welcomed thousands of visitors to his home city, all united by a shared passion for the railways.

The success of Alstom The Greatest Gathering has also been recognised through multiple awards. In the previous month, the project team secured two national honours: a Project Team Award at the RailStaff Awards 2025 and the Star Team Award at the Railway Benefit Fund’s 2025 Heart of Gold Awards. Looking ahead, the event has been nominated for two Rail Business Awards and has been shortlisted for Festival or Event of the Year in the Peak District, Derbyshire & Derby Tourism Awards.

Alstom’s large-scale charity celebration is further in contention for the Steam Railway Magazine Award as part of the Heritage Railway Association (HRA) Annual Awards 2026. This Steam Railway Magazine Award nomination is the only HRA award decided by public vote and recognises excellence in heritage rail, with a particular focus on projects and achievements that involve steam locomotives. Public voting runs until midnight on Sunday 31 January, and the winners will be announced at the HRA Annual Awards ceremony in the Welsh coastal resort of Llandudno in March 2026.

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