National Railway Enthusiasts Association or better known as NREA was founded in 1976 by a small group of Railway Enthusiasts whose aim was to cater for other enthusiast needs. They ran highly successful tours to British Railway installations all over Britain, arranged visits to individual British Rail Depots and British Rail Locomotive Works and organised special charter trains including the “Doncaster Double” and the “Glasgow Double”. They also compiled information for the publication “SPOTTERS COMPANION” and now also publish it with the 27th edition due out in 2005. Over the past few years with the advent of EWS and the demise of the official permission to visit British Installations, the demand for tours in Britain declined. However NREA decided that there was another need required by enthusiasts and that need was to venture into Europe to pursue their interest.

NREA European Tours were re-launched over 7 years ago, the tours are designed to cater for a small groups of enthusiasts whether their interest is purely photography, depot bashing, number crunching or in some cases just visiting European depots. Their tours are all by large 49 seater luxury coaches with full facilities (even though parties are limited to 15 persons) which gives the discerning enthusiast a high standard of comfort while travelling many hundreds of miles during the pursuit of their hobby across Europe. The days are planned to cater for each type of enthusiast’s interests, with all joining together in a friendly atmosphere to pursue their hobby. Free time is available at the end of each days programme for either continuing their interest in Railways under their own steam, and for those who are unsure of the locality and look for some guidance, NREA tour officials are always on hand and will gladly accompany participants or point them in the right direction of the local stations or vantage points. If however you just require to chill out after the days activities then you can relax in the comfort of one the excellent hotels used by NREA, maybe mulling over the days activities with other members of the party.

Following the Madrid Railway Bombing and the increased security at depots in Europe NREA suspended tours and also membership. HOWEVER NREA is still alive and actively still producing the Spotters Companion with the 29th Edition(May 2007) now on sale.

IF YOU REQUIRE ANY INFORMATION PLEASE EMAIL info@nrea.org.uk