The Railway and Canal Historical Society is the leading transport history society in the United Kingdom.
Founded in 1954 to encourage the study of railway and canal history, the Society now embraces wider aspects of transport history. This recognises that a serious study of canal and railway history is often inseparable from a study of other forms of transport, such as river navigations, roads, docks, pipelines, shipping, ferries and aircraft.
Members receive a journal, three times a year, and a bulletin six times a year. These are available as downloads from the website to all members, but those who prefer printed copies posted to them are catered for in the various categories of membership. Meetings, conferences and visits are arranged throughout the year. Local Groups in the regions also hold regular, usually monthly, meetings and visits and are open to all members wherever they live.
The Special Interest Groups are also open to all and include Early Railways, Railway History Research, Road Transport, Waterway History Research (includes docks and shipping), Air Transport, Pipelines & Materials Handling, Railway Chronology and Modern Transport. Members keep in touch with each other by newsletters and occasional papers, all of which are available to all members from the website.
The Society also publishes book reviews, in the journal, and an important Annual Bibliography. It has an extensive Research Index, a large collection of photographs and can assist research financially from the Research Fund. Publishing books on all aspects of our interests is important and the Society makes an annual Transport History Book of the Year Award.
The web site lists forthcoming events, activities of the Local and Special Interest Groups, all our available publications, offers help with research and much more.
Despite having a ‘serious’ subject we are a friendly and sociabl society and members are always willing to help one another with advice and the sharing of information.
Membership is open to all … now is the time to join us.
EXISTING MEMBERS: to renew membership click here
NEW MEMBERS JOIN HERE
The quickest way of applying for membership is by using the online shop.
However, if you prefer to join by post you can download the Membership Form and send it with a cheque payable to RCHS to the Membership Secretary at the address shown on the form.
Subscriptions run from January 1 and are normally for a year. Members pay a full subscription when they initially join the Society. Members joining after July 1 in any year pay a full subscription which lasts to the end of the following year. A generous offer!
This year, subscriptions are: Digital only (Worldwide) – £15; Standard Individual (UK) – £25; Standard Individual (Europe outside UK) – £39; Standard Individual (Outside UK and Europe) – £49; Standard Plus (UK only) – £37.
All members have access to the members facilities of the website. The website provides members with electronic copies of the Society’s six annual Bulletins, three Journals, the Annual Bibliography, Journal back numbers and indices as well as many other items, in particular output from the special interest groups. There is a full text search facility (members only) which searches around 2,000 documents including all issues of the Journal (from 1955), most of the newsletters from the Special Interest Groups, Quick’s Chronology of Passenger Railway Stations and the Annual Bibliography. An email advice is sent to all members when a new issue of the Journal or the Bulletin becomes available on the website.
Additionally, Standard Individual members receive the three Journals per annum by post, as well as being available as downloads from the website. Standard Plus members receive the three Journals and six Bulletins per annum by post, as well as being available as downloads from the website.
The subscription you pay now will last through until December 2027 and you will have access to all Journals and Bulletins published until then.