ELR Baron Street Workshop, Bury
03.06.2026
There’s still time to share your thoughts about the plans for Baron Street Workshop 🚂
We want to make sure that local people have the opportunity to help shape the project and tell us what they think. Whether you have ideas, suggestions or simply want to let us know what is most important to you, your feedback will help inform the next stages of the project.
If you haven’t already completed the survey, please take a few minutes to have your say: ELR Baron Street Survey
Every response is valuable and will help us build a clearer picture of what local people would like to see.
18.08.2026
The East Lancashire Railway is inviting local people, railway visitors, volunteers and anyone with an interest in Bury’s railway heritage to have their say on the future of the historic Baron Street Workshop.
As plans for the Grade II Listed workshop continue to develop, we want to understand what people value about this remarkable building, what makes it special to them and what they would like to see considered as part of its future.
Baron Street Workshop has been at the heart of railway engineering in Bury for more than 170 years and continues to be used today to restore, repair and maintain the East Lancashire Railway’s historic locomotives and rolling stock.
Your views will help the project team understand what matters most to the people who use, visit and care about the railway, and will help inform the next stages of the project.
Our short online survey is now open and you can complete it here: ELR Baron Street Survey
We would really appreciate your feedback, and please feel free to share the survey with anyone else who may be interested 🚂
11.08.2026
We’re delighted to be working alongside the East Lancashire Railway and Bury Council on an exciting new heritage project at the historic Buckley Wells rail depot in Bury.
At the heart of the depot is the Grade II Listed Baron Street locomotive workshop. Built in 1856 for the East Lancashire Railway Company, the workshop has been part of Bury’s railway story for 170 years and is one of the oldest surviving railway workshops in the country. Remarkably, it remains part of a working railway depot today, where the East Lancashire Railway continues the tradition of restoring, repairing and maintaining historic steam and diesel locomotives, carriages and other railway vehicles.
The aim of the project is to protect and repair this important historic workshop, while keeping it as a working railway engineering facility. As part of the longer-term vision, the team are also exploring how the workshop could be made more accessible to visitors, giving people the opportunity to discover the building, its history and the traditional engineering skills that continue to be practised there.
The first stage of the project will involve a range of specialist surveys to help us understand the condition of the building, what repairs are needed and what they are likely to cost. We’ll also be developing a visual plan to show how the site could look in the future. This information will then help us look at funding opportunities for the repair and restoration work.
Local people and railway visitors will have an important part to play too. We’ll shortly be launching an online survey to find out what people think about the plans, why they value the workshop and what they would like to see from the project.
Keep checking this page for updates and details of how you can get involved. 🚂
