Heaton Open day - Saturday 20 and Sunday 21 September 2025.

[DarloRich]

Northern have announced that there will be a 2 day charity open day at Heaton depot on Saturday 20 and Sunday 21 September 2025 as part of the railway 200 celebrations. Tickets will cost £12 for adults and £5 for children, with a 50% discount available for Northern staff, family, and friends. shuttles win run from Newcastle station to the depot. Tickets go on sale in July

Northern throws open the doors to Heaton TrainCare Centre to celebrate 150 year anniversary | Northern News

Thousands of visitors are expected to join the operator for a rare chance to look behind the scenes at one of Britain's longest-serving rail depots.

media.northernrailway.co.uk

Heaton 150

Northern | Buy Cheap Train Tickets and Check Train Times

www.northernrailway.co.uk

Northern throws open the doors to Heaton TrainCare Centre to celebrate 150 year anniversary

 

[ainsworth74]

Think I might have to see if I can make it up there! Think of the rare track on the shuttle service!

 

[Gwr12345]

50% discount available for Northern staff, family, and friends

Who class as Northern's friends? A rather vague description

 

[DarloRich]

Think I might have to see if I can make it up there! Think of the rare track on the shuttle service!

for £12!

Who class as Northern's friends? A rather vague description

no idea - you will have to ask them

 

[800Travel]

Think I might have to see if I can make it up there! Think of the rare track on the shuttle service!

Oo cool - I somehow skipped the trains and just read 'shuttle buses'!

 

[ainsworth74]

Who class as Northern's friends? A rather vague description

It'll almost certainly mean friends of Northern staff. Similar to how you can get a cheap Northern Only day ticket if you're friends with a Northern staff member.

 

[Meole]

A charity event, who wants a discount ?

 

[ainsworth74]

A charity event, who wants a discount ?

I wasn't proposing to get one personally even though I could probably assuming I'm right and the qualification is friend of a Northern employee.

 

[43096]

For anyone wanting to travel directly to this event, 125 Group are running a railtour from Derby directly into Heaton depot. Initial details on their Facebook page.

 

[70013NE]

Noticed a 5Z91 that goes to Newcastle in a few weeks ish iirc, no movements regarding after it's scheduled 2am arrival, any chance it could be going?

 

[mdog69]

Does anyone know when the tickets for this event are going to be made available?
The Northern website says July, but there's not much July left!

 

[Rail Ranger]

The Branch Line Society are saying: "Northern has advised that it is no longer planned to run a passenger shuttle between Newcastle station and Heaton Depot for the 20 & 21 September open days there".

 

[mdog69]

I understood the lack of shuttles (was working on the assumption of metro to Walkergate), but I was asking about lack of ticketing arrangements for the open day itself.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 30 Jul 2025 ==

https://www.northernrailway.co.uk/railway-200/heaton150 now saying that there will be shuttle trains and buses from Newcastle Central.

Also noted that the link to buy tickets takes you to a Seetickets website, who stick a 10% fee on the ticket price making it £13.20 or £5.50.
I am clearly in the wrong trade.

 

[H&I]

Tickets are on sale now. It is great to see Sir Nigel Gresley featured! £12 is also amazing value for money. I assume the timed-entry slots have no limits, and if I buy the earliest slot, I can stay there for the whole day?

 

[43 302]

Noticed a 5Z91 that goes to Newcastle in a few weeks ish iirc, no movements regarding after it's scheduled 2am arrival, any chance it could be going?

That's a platform compliance test for a 225-7.

 

[Rail Ranger]

In other words a 7-coach class 91 plus Mark 4 set.

 

[43 302]

In other words a 7-coach class 91 plus Mark 4 set.

To be pedantic, a 91 with a seven coach Mk4 set + DVT. Not a seven coach class 91!

 

[DarloRich]

Git my tickets for this one - also worth noting that it is the big SDR celebration in Darlington on the Saturday so might be worth making a weekend of it

 

[Gwr12345]

Does anyone know which pacer's going?

 

[ainsworth74]

The Northern shuttle service has appeared in RTT. For instance here's Saturday heading towards Heaton (you want the 2Gxx services).

Realtime Trains | Departures from Newcastle all day on 20/09/2025

Train information at Newcastle all day on 20/09/2025. From Realtime Trains, an independent source of train running info for Great Britain.

www.realtimetrains.co.uk

 

[Gwr12345]

The Northern shuttle service has appeared in RTT. For instance here's Saturday heading towards Heaton (you want the 2Gxx services).

Realtime Trains | Departures from Newcastle all day on 20/09/2025

Train information at Newcastle all day on 20/09/2025. From Realtime Trains, an independent source of train running info for Great Britain.

www.realtimetrains.co.uk

The complete timetable can be found here:
https://www.northernrailway.co.uk/railway-200

 

[pdeaves]

We'll be at the open day later this month. For various reasons, it's probably simplest to access not via the hourly train from Newcastle. Does anyone know, please, exactly where the street access is? My attempts at finding any sort of directions online implies go to a street west of the main line and 'simply' cross all the tracks into the depot.

Thanks!

 

[ainsworth74]

We'll be at the open day later this month. For various reasons, it's probably simplest to access not via the hourly train from Newcastle. Does anyone know, please, exactly where the street access is? My attempts at finding any sort of directions online implies go to a street west of the main line and 'simply' cross all the tracks into the depot.

Thanks!

Well this is the depot access road: https://maps.app.goo.gl/WVxqHg7qbbfy14wEA

Though I'm not sure whether they'd be granting access via the visitor car park (a bit further on) or via the main entrance (the closer access point). My gut instinct would be the visitor car park as presumably that would be the spot where a bus would turn around. But worth recalling there is very limited parking so you'd need to likely walk to the depot from further away.

 

[pdeaves]

Thanks.

 

[Gwr12345]

Does anyone know which pacer's going?

Well this was a surprise. Turns out it's 142090, one of Sheffield University's RHTT units. Fully mainline registered as well!

 

[Trainguy34]

Looks like the RailAdventure tour only gives you 2 ½ hours there, if there's any cab tours people would probably spend longer then that in the queue for them!

 

[43096]

Looks like the RailAdventure tour only gives you 2 ½ hours there, if there's any cab tours people would probably spend longer then that in the queue for them!

I assume you mean 125 Group tour?

 

[Steddenm]

Well this was a surprise. Turns out it's 142090, one of Sheffield University's RHTT units. Fully mainline registered as well!

Yeah I've seen pictures of it's moving today, in a Grand Central-esque style livery with wonky numbers as well.

 

[Trainguy34]

I assume you mean 125 Group tour?

That's the one I meant, I saw it appear as RailAdventure on RTT so wrongfully presumed it would be them.

 

[50002Superb]

I assume you mean 125 Group tour?

It’s actually a 125 Group in conjunction with the Branch Line Society and Railadventure tour per the BLS Website.