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Help us fund Season Two of Tracing the Rails, preserving Britain’s lost railway stories through community-made heritage based documentaries.
Tracing the Rails® began as a small, community-made documentary project with a simple purpose: to follow the lost Steyning Line through Sussex, UK and preserve the stories, places and memories that still survive along its route.
What started as a labour of love has grown into a much-loved heritage documentary series, watched by railway enthusiasts, local historians, walkers, families, former railway communities and people who simply enjoy slow, thoughtful television about real places and real stories.
Season One was self funded, but we have now spent our savings and are asking for your help to make Season Two possible.
CLICK HERE for Full Electronic Press Kit/Pitch Deck
About us
Tracing the Rails® is made by a small, not-for-profit production team led by director Chris Kirk and producer Lou Kirk-Partridge. We are not a large television company. We do not have a broadcaster’s production budget behind us. We are a small team with a big belief: that Britain’s lost railways are not just lines on old maps, but living pieces of community memory.
Our series combines documentary storytelling, railway history, archive research, location filming, interviews, drone footage, presenter-led journeys and the quiet pleasure of exploring places that many people pass every day without knowing what once stood there.
Our first series followed the former Steyning Line in West Sussex, uncovering the route between Shoreham-by-Sea and Horsham through surviving station sites, bridges, trackbeds, memories, photographs and local stories. Along the way, we have met generous contributors, local experts, railway historians, former residents and people whose family memories are directly connected to the line.
It was made on a tight budget and will have taken 2.5 years to complete. Now we want to take the next step.
What we want to make
Season Two will allow us to continue Tracing the Rails® properly: with more time, better resources, stronger production planning and a realistic budget. Most importantly, we can plan and finish season 2 in a fixed time frame. Not 2 years but more like 6 months.
Our vision is to make a new season of carefully researched, professionally produced heritage documentaries about another lost railway story. It will continue the line from Horsham to Guildford in Sussex. We want to keep the heart of the programme intact: the warmth, curiosity, humour, community involvement and gentle pace that viewers have responded to. But we also want to raise the production standard, improve the schedule, support the people giving their time, and make the series sustainable.
This is not about turning Tracing the Rails® into something glossy and empty. It is about giving a community heritage series the support it needs to be made properly and hopefully with some longevity or sustainability.
Why it matters
Across Britain, lost railway lines are disappearing twice.
First, they disappeared physically: rails lifted, stations demolished, bridges removed, cuttings filled, buildings repurposed and routes absorbed back into the landscape.
Now they are disappearing from memory.
The people who remember these places are getting older. Photographs sit in drawers. Home movies remain undigitised. Stories are known within families but rarely recorded. Local history groups work incredibly hard, but many of these stories never reach wider audiences and those too fade as societies disappear or dissolve. We have seen this happening with our own eyes as we made season one.
Tracing the Rails® exists to do something about that.
We want to capture these memories while they can still be told. We want to film the surviving places before they change beyond recognition. We want to bring old photographs, maps, archive material and lived experience together in a way that is accessible, entertaining and lasting. Most of all, we want to get it to a wider audience. People who watch our show, love it, but it is difficult getting it in front of wider audiences.
This is heritage preservation through film.
Where we are now
We have already proved that there is an audience for this kind of work. Tracing the Rails® has grown from a small independent production into a recognised community documentary series with a loyal online following, public screenings and television exposure.
We have built the project with very limited resources, relying heavily on volunteer time, goodwill, personal equipment, community support and the determination of a small team. We have amassed 100,000 viewers across the Rewind TV satellite channel and YouTube. We don't monetise advertising and we try to stay true to our fans, delivering educational and fun TV.
That has got us this far. But it is not a sustainable way to make the next stage.
Season Two needs a proper production budget. It needs planned filming days, post-production time, sound, editing, music, archive work, travel, insurance, marketing, accessibility and contributor support. It also needs enough flexibility to make the best possible version of the series depending on the level of support raised.
It's not just about money!
We also need high profile guests, celebrities or stars that are followers of railways or heritage or railway modelling and can speak up as guests and encourage others to take up an interest. Guests can also be sports personalities who want to encourage walking or explorers or historians. Ideally though, recognised TV personalities. There are so many angles to walking a lost line from health to wildlife to history to community and so on.
How we will use the money
Every pound raised will go towards making Season Two of Tracing the Rails®.
The money will help fund:
Research and development, including archive research, route investigation, contributor outreach and story planning.
Filming costs, including crew, travel, equipment, sound, lighting where needed, location logistics and production support.
Post-production, including editing, sound design, music, colour grading, graphics, archive preparation and final delivery.
Contributor and community work, including interviews, local history engagement, screenings, permissions and proper crediting of materials.
Legal and practical requirements, including insurance, rights clearance, release forms, risk assessments and responsible use of archive material.
Audience and distribution work, including publicity, festival submissions, community screenings, online release preparation and broadcast-ready materials where required.
Crowdfunder costs, reward fulfilment and contingency, so that the campaign is realistic, transparent and deliverable.
This is a flexible funding campaign. That means the more we raise, the stronger and more complete Season Two can be. We will make Season two by hook or by crook, but the further away from our target we are, the longer it will take to make and the lesser the quality might be (though we give it our best - always!)
If we raise a modest amount, we can begin development, filming and core production work. If we raise more, we can increase the number of filming days, improve post-production, widen the range of contributors, licence better archive materials, support more community screenings and produce the series to a higher professional standard. We can hire or work with editors so that we can be filming a new episode while the last one is edited, all the things a fully fleshed out production would do.
Why support us?
Because these stories matter.
Because local history should not be left to fade away.
Because community-made documentary can reach people in a way that books, plaques and archives alone sometimes cannot.
Because Tracing the Rails® has already shown what can be achieved with passion, care and very limited means.
And because with your help, we can do justice to the next lost railway story.
This is not a commercial investment and we are not offering equity or financial return. Your support will help fund a not-for-profit heritage documentary project whose purpose is to preserve, share and celebrate railway history for the widest possible audience. If we do become commissioned, then that money will go towards season three and so on, creating a sustainable path for us to make more.
How you can help?
If you are able to donate, any amount will help.
If you cannot donate, sharing this campaign is still hugely valuable. Please send it to railway enthusiasts, local history groups, walkers, cyclists, heritage organisations, former railway workers, model railway clubs, community groups, local media, family historians and anyone who might care about Britain’s lost railways. The press even - if you can!
You can also help by contacting us if you have photographs, film footage, documents, artefacts, memories or family stories connected to the next leg of the line.
Tracing the Rails® has always been powered by community.
Now we are asking that community to help us take the next journey.
Funding method
Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made by 29th November 2026 at 5:39pm