22/06/2026
A huge thank you from Nottingham Heritage Vehicles Charity
We would like to say a very sincere and heartfelt thank you to everyone who supported yesterday’s Derbyshire Dales Bus & Train Festival at Rowsley South Station. The entire NHVC team are volunteers, giving time, effort and often financial support to all we do.
To every visitor who came along, travelled on the buses, rode on the trains, bought an event ‘free bus’ timetable, visited the displays, supported the traders, or simply helped create such a fantastic atmosphere - thank you. Your support is what makes events like this possible and worthwhile.
A massive thank you must also go to the vehicle owners, drivers, conductors, marshals, stewards, volunteers, stallholders, railway staff, photographers, enthusiasts and supporters who gave up their time, vehicles, energy and enthusiasm to make the day happen. Many people only see the event itself, but behind the scenes there is a huge amount of planning, preparation, route checking, paperwork, vehicle movement, stewarding and last-minute problem solving. We are incredibly grateful to everyone who played their part.
We are especially grateful to Peak Rail for once again giving us the opportunity to host the event at their Rowsley South venue, helping the day grow into a true Bus & Train Festival in the beautiful Derbyshire Dales. Our thanks also go to those supporting the railway activities, shed tours, turntable demonstrations and wider site operation throughout the day.
We know many of you were looking forward to the ‘driver for a fiver’ opportunity, promoted in the run up to the event but sadly due to operational requirements on the day this element was missing. We weren’t aware until informed by visitors during the day, so can only apologise.
Thank you also to Transport Nostalgia for their valued sponsorship and continued support of the event and the charity.
The free bus services once again showed just how special heritage transport can be when it is out doing what it was built to do - carrying people, connecting places and bringing smiles to faces. Linking Rowsley, Darley Dale, Matlock, Chatsworth, Bakewell, Haddon Hall and the surrounding area by heritage buses, alongside Peak Rail’s train services, creates something genuinely unique.
Yesterday was an exceptionally busy day. Across the event, vehicles carried over 4,000 passenger on journeys from the site, which is a tremendous figure and shows the level of support the festival received. Again - a massive Thankyou to vehicle owners and drivers - without you this wouldn’t be possible.
We also know from DFS that the Mill car park was filled, and we are very grateful that, after one of our onsite stewards sought permission from store management, we were able to make use of an area of the store car park as well. A sincere thank you to DFS and their team for their help and understanding.
We are aware that the site facilities were under significant pressure at peak times. The onsite Peak Rail toilets were cleaned throughout the day, but unfortunately misuse resulted in the gents being closed for a period during the mid-afternoon. We appreciate this will have caused inconvenience to some visitors. We hope that doubling the frequency of buses to Bakewell, together with the continued availability of accessible facilities onsite, helped to mitigate this as far as possible.
The Peak Rail café was also exceptionally busy throughout the day. It offers competitively priced refreshments and, understandably with the number of visitors onsite, demand was very high. The staff were working so very hard to get the queue down as quickly as possible. To help ensure bus crews, stewards and event volunteers were able to get a drink while still keeping services and the event operation moving, Transport Nostalgia provided the funds to subsidise refreshments for them. We fully appreciate that some visitors would have liked additional catering options onsite; however, by agreement with Peak Rail, we are not able to provide separate public catering facilities at the station. We are grateful to everyone for their patience and understanding.
As with any large free public event, especially one that continues to grow, there are always lessons to learn and improvements to make. We will review the day carefully, listen to constructive feedback, and look at how we can make future events even better. Earlier feeder services are certainly something to consider but the demand to be onsite well before the event opened was exceptional yesterday. It’s a fine balance between giving exhibitors time to set up, and to appreciate the many miles some display vehicles travel to attend - notwithstanding the current fuel costs, before we ask them to commence an intense free bus service timetable through goodwill. What cannot be doubted, however, is the effort, goodwill and commitment shown by so many people who came together to support the event.
We finally got away ourselves a little after 8pm, after the movement of a railway carriage had been completed.
Most importantly, every bit of support helps Nottingham Heritage Vehicles Charity continue its work preserving local transport heritage, keeping vehicles active, and sharing them with the public.
From all of us at NHVC: thank you for supporting the Derbyshire Dales Bus & Train Festival. We are genuinely grateful.
