Photography, labour and living railway heritage at Haworth Art Gallery.
Forged in Steam is a new photographic exhibition by Lancashire-based photographer Diane Muldowney, that opened at Haworth Art Gallery, Accrington, on Saturday 17 January 2026, with a public launch on Saturday 24 January, 12.30 pm to 4.00 pm.
Presented as part of the national Railway 200 celebrations, the exhibition explores Britain’s railway heritage through the lens of labour, skill, and collaboration. Muldowney’s photography focuses not only on steam locomotives in motion, but on the people who keep them alive, crews, engineers, and volunteers whose knowledge and craft are forged through heat, effort, and time.
Through behind-the-scenes access to heritage railways, mainline steam tours, and landmark events such as The Greatest Gathering, and locomotion No.1’s test run on Network Rail mainline. The exhibition presents steam as a living, working practice rather than a romanticised past. Coal-marked faces, tools, machinery, and engines moving through northern landscapes speak of endurance, teamwork, and the transmission of skills across generations.
Diane Muldowney said “Steam railways survive because of people, their knowledge, their physical labour, and their willingness to pass skills on. I’m interested in what happens when we really look at that work, and what it means for the future.”
Forged in Steam also reflects on contemporary questions surrounding sustainability, fossil fuels, and the future viability of heritage railways. The exhibition asks how historic technologies can be understood within a modern environmental context, and how preservation continues to adapt rather than stand still.
The exhibition is supported by three invited artists, Bess Holt, Ajaz Qureshi, and Andrew Nicholas. Together, these works expand the exhibition’s dialogue, offering alternative perspectives on heritage, industry, memory, and place.
This project has been part funded by the Community Rail Network through the DfT’s Community Rail Development Fund; Community Rail Lancashire; Lancashire County Council and Northern.
