Youth train snappers chuffed to win!

Young Railway Photographers of the Year 2025 announced

Adam Duckworth|11.07.2025

Competition|4 min read

The National Railway Museum in York was a fitting location to host the ceremony to name the winners of the 2025 Young Railway Photographer of the Year competition.

Co-organised by the National Railway Museum and the Railway Photographic Society, it’s a nationwide search to find the UK’s most promising railway photographers aged 25 or under.

Now in its second edition, the competition received over 300 entries – more than double the number submitted in 2022. This year’s theme was ‘Railway 200’, tying in with 2025’s nationwide celebration of the bicentenary of the modern railway.

Entries covered everything from railway and carriage design, architecture and structures, travel experiences and railway landscapes to innovation, as young photographers aimed to capture the past, present and future of the railways in a portfolio of six images.

Shortlisted entries are now on display in special exhibitions at the National Railway Museum in York until January 2026 and at Locomotion in Shildon until August 2025.

Best image was awarded to Dale Bristo, 18, from St Helens, for his striking and dynamic hyperlapse image of a Merseyrail Class 777, taken at Liverpool Central station on the underground Wirral line platform.

Bristo said: “I always had an interest in railways growing up, and when I got into the photography side of things, I knew I wanted to stand out in the way I take photos. For this one, I wanted to use my skills with motion blur to show the evolution of the railways.

“I’m still shell-shocked that I’ve won – it means a lot. The amount of opportunities it’s going to open up for me is amazing. I love the museum, with all the locomotives and rolling stock. It’s just amazing.”

Other winners included Oliver Powell (16) from Hereford, in the ‘18 and under’ category, whose portfolio of six pictures included a dramatic image of a Class 5043 steam engine storming forth from a tunnel. First place in the 19–25 category was awarded to Lewis Hurley (25) from Coventry, who captured a GWR 802021 on the Cardiff to Penzance service, battered by waves on the Dawlish Sea Wall.

Judges’ picks included Imogen Dixon (11), from York, whose selfie-style snapshot captured a moment of excitement from a carriage window as her train passed Roseberry Topping in North Yorkshire.

The youngest entrant to receive a prize was Beatrice Collier, just eight years old, for a camera phone shot taken as she peered through a fence at a red signal flanked by greenery. Judges praised how the image conveyed the transition between nature and manmade infrastructure.

The overall winner and the winners of the two age categories (18 and under, and 19–25) were awarded Fujifilm X-T5 Silver digital cameras with XF16–50mm lenses. Other prizes included a tour on Network Rail’s New Measurement Train, a GB Railfreight cab simulator experience, heritage railway line tickets and more.

The Young Railway Photographer of the Year competition is co-organised with the Railway Photographic Society and supported by Fujifilm UK, The Royal Photographic Society, Network Rail, Mortons Media, GB Railfreight (GBRf) and Amateur Photographer magazine, Bauer Media, Railway Touring Company, North Yorkshire Moors Railway and the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway.