VINTAGE TRAINS CHARITABLE TRUST

Registered charity 1040904 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register · also known as BIRMINGHAM RAILWAY MUSEUM, BIRMINGHAM RAILWAY MUSEUM TRUST LIMITED, VINTAGE TRAINS, VINTAGE TRAINS LIMITED

The principal activity and object is to encourage and promote public interest in the preservation of steam and other railway locomotives and rolling stock of historical importance. The company continues with the restoration of locomotives and rolling stock.

Objects

TO ENCOURAGE AND TO PROMOTE PUBLIC INTEREST IN THE PRESERVATION OF STEAM AND OTHER RAILWAY LOCOMOTIVES AND ROLLING STOCK, MACHINERY AND EQUIPMENT OF HISTORICAL INTEREST, AND IN RAILWAYS, LOCOMOTIVES, ROLLING STOCK AND RAILWAY MACHINERY AND EQUIPMENT GENERALLY.

Area of benefit: NOT DEFINED

The charity’s charitable objects and area of benefit, quoted from its governing document as held on the Charity Commission register.

Causes: Environment/conservation/heritage · website · Get email alerts

Registered contact address: Birmingham, West Midlands, England (from the postcode on the register)

Financial health, per its FY2025 accounts

The accounts state that the charity reported a net decrease in funds of £105,050 for the year ended 31 March 2025, resulting in total funds of £111,976. The trustees report that unrestricted available reserves are negative at -£217,182, though they expect improvements in future years to meet operational commitments. The group remains a going concern with adequate resources to continue in operational existence for the foreseeable future.

Automated summary of the FY2025 accounts; the evidenced findings below carry the verbatim passages.

What the accounts disclose

Accounts audited by Mark J Rees LLP. Discloses 3 of 6 completeness components.

Policies the charity declares

In its annual return the charity told the Commission that it has the policies listed below. This is self-declared: it is not verified by the Commission or by this site, and it is not evidence of how a policy works in practice.

• Complaints handling
• Complaints policy and procedures
• Conflicting interests
• Internal charity financial controls policy and procedures
• Risk management
• Safeguarding policy and procedures
• Serious incident reporting policy and procedures
• Volunteer management

From the charity’s annual return (Part A, self-declared)

Answers and figures the charity gave in Part A of its annual return to the Charity Commission. They are self-declared: not verified by the Commission or by this site. Only positive answers and figures are listed; items not listed are simply not shown.

Source: this charity’s annual returns on the Charity Commission register.

Annual return filing dates (Charity Commission record)

Of its last 5 annual returns with a recorded received date, 3 were received after the due date: year ending 31/03/2025 (received 01/06/2026, 121 days after the 31/01/2026 due date); year ending 31/03/2024 (received 06/06/2025, 126 days after the 31/01/2025 due date); year ending 31/03/2023 (received 01/02/2024, 1 day after the 31/01/2024 due date).

Due and received dates as recorded in the Commission’s annual-return data; the data does not say whether an extension was agreed. Source: this charity’s annual returns on the Charity Commission register.

Property (HM Land Registry)

1 registered title in England and Wales held by the charity’s company or corporate body (1 freehold). All charity-held property. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright, OGL v3.0.

Public profiles (found on the charity’s own website): facebook · instagram

Structured financials (annual return, FY ending 31/03/2025)

Reported reserves equal ~0.0 months of spending — in the bottom quarter for charities its size (median 4.7 months; benchmarks).

Per its annual return, largest income source: Other trading activities (91% of income) — components as reported reconcile to the return’s total income; not from the accounts narrative.

Trustees · trustee networks

• CHRISTOPHER MICHAEL WHITEHOUSEchair · trustee of 1 other charity
• MR VIC MICHEL
• Mark Gaskill
• RICHARD GRAHAM THORNE · trustee of 1 other charity
• RICHARD JOHN CADGE · trustee of 1 other charity
• Rebecca Delmore
• Sipho Ndlovu Mr
• Stuart Whitehouse

Trustee list from the Charity Commission register (current, not historical).

Operates in: Birmingham City

Income and spending

Common questions

Known funders

Grants to this charity found in funders’ own accounts filings.

Government & lottery funding

Grants to this charity published as open data by government and lottery funders (360Giving).

Funders of similar charities

Funders whose accounts show grants to charities similar to this one (and no recorded grant to this charity) — a starting list for fundraisers.

Charities like this

Semantically similar by activities and financial character, from our analysed corpus. Compare with VINTAGE CARRIAGES TRUST.

• VINTAGE CARRIAGES TRUST income £227k
• AVON VALLEY RAILWAY HERITAGE TRUST income £50k
• STROUD VINTAGE TRANSPORT AND ENGINE CLUB LTD income £293k
• NENE VALLEY RAILWAY income £1.1m
• BODMIN RAILWAY HERITAGE TRUST income £105k
• NATIONAL TRACTION ENGINE TRUST income £105k

Side by side with its peers

Each row is that charity’s latest analysed filing; every value is quote-backed on its own page.