Safety on your Railway

BGLR Miniature , Narrow Gauge Railway Safety Policy & Standards

The safety of our passengers, visitors and staff is paramount.

We provide a variety of help and guidance to our members, sharing best practice and information. Member Railways have access to lots of information including examples of a Safety Management System (SMS) which has been approved by Her Majesty’s Railway Inspectorate (HMRI), forms, risk assessments, rule books, policies, reports, checklists and advice. We also provide examples of records, procedures, and policies for assessing and recording issues such as staff competencies,

We have developed and implemented a system for external railway inspections. This information is available to members only via the members login part of this web site. Regular updates on safety issues are provided via our e newsletter, members meetings or special communication for matters of urgency.  

We have a link with the Office of Rail Regulation which now controls HMRI through our membership of the Heritage Railway Association (HRA) which enables us to ensure that we are involved in proposed legislation at the formation stage with an opportunity for improvement.

On this page  we provide links to documents published by government bodies and in some cases copies of documents which are out of print. When we publish official documents we conform with the guidance at http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/

With the assistance of the Office of Rail Regulation you can download here a copy of:

The RIDDOR guidance on reporting of rail accidents.

This document is published by The Health & Safety Executive (HSE) and is provided under the Open Government Licence

Please note that the reporting details shown in the RIDDOR GUIDANCE  are now out of date and the proper channels are set out here:   http://www.hse.gov.uk/riddor/report.htm

Note that this is a large file so please allow time for it to download. 

Standards & Guidance on Safe Practice- Miniature Railways

The publication by the HSE of the document entitled “Passenger –carrying miniature railways – Guidance on safe practice” (HSG216 ISBN 0 – 7176 – 2035). This is an extremely useful “starter pack” for anyone running a miniature railway. If your railway complies with most of the recommendations then this will stand you in good stead if you were to have a reportable incident

You can read it here 8627 HSG216

This has been updated by BGLR and others and is now

HS2020 – Managing health and safety at
passenger-carrying miniature railways

and can be read here – HS2020 

The HSE has issued further safety advice for railways with sit astride carriages.
This safety advice is aimed at designers, manufacturers, and operators of passenger-carrying
miniature railways using sit astride passenger carrying vehicles on both raised and ground level
tracks where failure to provide suitable protective measures could result in passengers accessing
entrapment points between the carriage and the track and/or between the passenger carrying
vehicles.
Persons responsible for the maintenance and inspection of these devices should also read this safety
advice.