## **Trustees' Annual Report for the period** 

Period start date Period end date Day Month Year Day Month Year 1 Novembe 2024 31 October 2025 **From** r **To** 

## Section A                        Reference and administration details 

**Charity name Other names charity is known by Registered charity number (if any)** 1164199 

North Eastern Railway Association 

**Charity's principal address** 2 McNay Street Darlington **Postcode DL3 6SW** 

## **Names of the charity trustees who manage the charity** 

|1<br>2<br>3<br>4<br>5<br>6<br>7<br>8<br>9<br>10<br>11<br>12|**Trustee name**|**Office (if**<br>**any)**|**Dates acted if not for whole**<br>**year **|**Name of person (or body) entitled**<br>**to appoint trustee (ifany)**|
|---|---|---|---|---|
||Andrew Neil Mackay|Chairman||Members of the charity|
||Christine Joyce Richardson|Treasurer||Members of the charity|
||John McCree Scott|Secretary||Members of the charity|
||John Dilworth Carr||1/11/2024 – 12/04/2025|Members of the charity|
||Ian William Mitchell||12/04/2025 – 31/10/2025|Members of the charity|
||Edward John Orwin|||Members of the charity|
||Keith Richardson|||Members of the charity|
||Peter David Sykes||12/04/2025 – 31/10/2025|Members of the charity|
||Alan Tully|||Members of the charity|
||Ian Watson||1/11/2024 – 12/04/2025|Members of the charity|
||Claire Williamson|||Members of the charity|
||David John Williamson|||Members of the charity|



**Names of the trustees for the charity, if any, (for example, any custodian trustees)** 

**Name Dates acted if not for whole year** 

## **Names and addresses of advisers (Optional information)** 

**Type of adviser Name Address** 

## **Name of chief executive or names of senior staff members (Optional information)** 

March **2012** 

**TAR** 

1 



## **Section B              Structure, governance, and management** 

## **Description of the charity’s trusts** 

Type of governing document 

- (eg. trust deed, constitution) 

Constitution 

How the charity is constituted Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO). (eg. trust, association, company) 

Trustee selection methods 

- (eg. appointed by, elected by) 

Normally elected by members at the AGM. Exceptionally can be co-opted by the Trustees at one of their meetings subject to confirmation at the following AGM. 

## **Additional governance issues (Optional information)** 

You **may choose** to include additional information, where relevant, about: 

- policies and procedures adopted for the induction and training of trustees. 

- the charity’s organisational structure and any wider network with which the charity works. 

- relationship with any related parties. 

- trustees’ consideration of major risks and the system and procedures to manage them. 

## **Section C                    Objectives and activities** 

**Summary of the objects of the charity set out in its governing document** 

The object of the charity is to advance the education of the public in the history of all the railways that have operated in the North East of England, particularly the North Eastern Railway, its constituents, and successors. The charity will achieve this object by: collecting and preserving historical records, regularly publishing a Journal, arranging a programme of meetings/exhibitions, encouraging the construction of accurate models of the railways, encouraging the writing of appropriate books and their publication, and working with public and private bodies such as Community Rail Support Groups and Train Operating Companies, Network Rail, Heritage Railway Associations and organisations representing railway staff. 

March **2012** 

**TAR** 

2 



**Darlington Archives Team** During the year **91** queries have been received and dealt with by the Archives Department based at McNay Street in Darlington and **47** through the webpage via the General Secretary, thus making a total of **138** . The Archives Team is continuing with an ongoing programme of digitisation and by maintaining an extensive library of video talks, which also contributes towards education, and recording aspects of North Eastern Railway history, thus satisfying part of our charitable aims. 

## **Main Activities** 

NERA continues to provide a series of evening presentations arranged via Zoom Video technology which allow a worldwide audience to participate directly from the comfort of their own homes. **There were five talks this year.** 

**Summary of the main activities undertaken for the Community Engagement** has increased during the year with talks **public benefit in relation to** given to promote the reopening of the Northumberland Line and the **these objects (include within** North Shields 800 festival. **this section the statutory** Special **NERA Banners** were produced to promote the work of NERA **declaration that trustees** at community events and included in the design were QR codes for **have had regard to the** ease of access to more information using mobile telephones. **guidance issued by the Charity Commission on The programme of Railway Walks** continued with a walk from **public benefit)** 

**The programme of Railway Walks** continued with a walk from Middleton-in-Teesdale to Barnard Castle. It was well attended by 20 people,10 of whom were non-members. 

**There were nine public events** during the year which included two at York (one of which included the Annual General Meeting), two at Hull, and three at Hopetown Museum in Darlington. All offered a varied programme for members and guests attending. We also attended **Rail 200 Events** at the **Stainmore Railway** in August and at the **Stephenson Steam Railway Museum** in North Shields, which took place in late October. The Robert Stephenson Trust, North Eastern Locomotive Preservation Group, ASLEF and the Mining and Mechanical Institute from Newcastle also participated at this event. 

All the facilities and activities are available to the public and are advertised on the charity’s website (http://www.ner.org.uk) 

## **Additional details of objectives and activities (Optional information)** 

The charity continues to be run by volunteers and their contribution You **may choose** to include across the full range of our activities has been essential to the further statements, where success of the Association during the year. relevant, about: 

- policy on grant making. 

- policy programme related investment. 

- contribution made by volunteers. 

March **2012** 

**TAR** 

3 



## Section D                      Achievements and performance 

Four issues of our _North Eastern Express_ journal together with four **Summary of the main** accompanying supplements were published. A special issue was **achievements of the charity** produced in August to mark the bicentenary of the opening of The **during the year** Stockton & Darlington Railway. (Rail 200) **Membership** The membership currently stands at 669 of which 175 are digital only, meaning those members can receive copies of the _North Eastern Express_ journal online instead of by post, thus saving the cost of postage. **Publications and Sales** Sales stands at NERA presentation events and Model Railway Exhibitions at York Racecourse, North Shields, Kirkby Stephen (Stainmore Railway) and Newcastle and NERA events at the Bar Convent in York have performed well helping to promote NERA books and facsimiles of historical railway related documents. These events are also an opportunity to interact with other interested parties from the wider railway community. New Sales Stands Banners have been produced to assist in promoting NERA. 

## **Section E                    Financial review** 

|**Brief statement of the**<br>**charity’s policy on reserves**<br>**Details of any funds materially**<br>**in deficit**|The charity holds a reserve fund of £45,000 which is adequate to meet all<br>its obligations in the event of winding up. It has four designated funds for<br>archive acquisitions, membership development and IT development, and<br>publications. At year end, the total value of the designated funds was<br>£25,027|
|---|---|
||No fund is in deficit|



March **2012** 

**TAR** 

4 



## **Further financial review details (Optional information)** 

You **may choose** to include additional information, where relevant about: 

Membership fees and publication sales are the principal source of funding. 

- the charity’s principal sources of funds (including any fundraising). 

- how expenditure has supported the key objectives of the charity. 

- investment policy and objectives including any ethical investment policy adopted. 

## **Section F                     Other optional information** 

## **Section G                    Declaration** 

**The trustees declare that they have approved the trustees’ report above.** 

**Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees** 

|**Signature(s)**<br>**Full name(s)**<br>**Position (e.g., Secretary, Chair,**<br>**etc)**<br>**Date**|<br>A N Mackay|J M Scott|
|---|---|---|
||<br>Andrew Neil Mackay|John McCree Scott|
||<br> <br>Chairman|General Secretary|
||15thNovember 2025||
||15thNovember 2025||



March **2012** 

**TAR** 

5 



|||**Charity Name**|||||||**No (if any)**|**No (if any)**|||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|||**NORTH EASTERN RAILWAY ASSOCIATION**||||||||**1164199**|||||
|||**Receipts andpayments accounts**|||||||||||**CC16a**||
|||**For the period**<br>**from**||Period start date<br>01-Nov-24|||**To**|||Period end date<br>31-Oct-25|||||
|**Section A Receipts and payments**|||||||||||||||
|||**Unrestricted**<br>**funds**||**Restricted**<br>**funds**|||**Endowment**<br>**funds**|||**Total funds**|||**Last year**||
|||**to the nearest**<br>**£**||**to the nearest**|**£**||**to the nearest**|**£**||**to the nearest £**|||**to the nearest**|**£**|
|**A1 Receipts**|||||||||||||||
|Subscriptions||**19,834**|||**-**|||**-**|||**19,834**||**19,564**||
|Donations||**1,385**|||**-**|||**-**|||**1,385**||**1,024**||
|Grants||**-**|||**-**|||**-**|||**-**|||**-**|
|Publications||**18,472**|||**-**|||**-**|||**18,472**||**17,093**||
|Miscellaneous||**2,757**|||**-**|||**-**|||**2,757**||**3,342**||
|Legacies||**-**|||**-**|||**-**|||**-**|||**-**|
|Archive services||**170**|||**-**|||**-**|||**170**|||**-**|
|||**-**|||**-**|||**-**|||**-**||||
|**_Sub total_**_(Gross income for AR)_||**42,618**|||**-**|||**-**|||**42,618**||**41,023**||
|**A2 Asset and investment**|**sales,**||||||||||||||
|**(see table).**|||||||||||||||
|||**-**|||**-**|||**-**|||**-**||||
|||**-**|||**-**|||**-**|||**-**|||**-**|
||**_Sub total_**|**-**|||**-**|||**-**|||**-**|||**-**|
||||||||||||||||
|**_Total receipts_**||**42,618**|||**-**|||**-**|||**42,618**||**41,023**||
|**A3 Payments**|||||||||||||||
|Magazine||**11,654**|||**-**|||**-**|||**11,654**||**13,981**||
|Donations & Grants||**-**|||**-**|||**-**|||**-**|||**-**|
|Meetings & Visits||**1,174**|||**-**|||**-**|||**1,174**||**986**||
|Archive||**9,610**|||**-**|||**-**|||**9,610**||**3,947**||
|Publications||**13,822**|||**-**|||**-**|||**13,822**||**11,595**||
|Publicity||**912**|||**-**|||**-**|||**912**||**165**||
|Administration||**1,222**|||**-**|||**-**|||**1,222**||**1,708**||
|Miscellaneous||**254**|||**-**|||**-**|||**254**|||**68**|
|Show expenses||**658**|||**-**|||**-**|||**658**|||**-**|
||**_Sub total_ **|**39,304**|||**-**|||**-**|||**39,304**||**32,451**||
||||||||||||||||
|**A4 Asset and investment**|||||||||||||||
|**purchases, (see table)**|||||||||||||||
|||**-**|||**-**|||**-**|||**-**||||
|||**-**|||**-**|||**-**|||**-**||||
||**_Sub total_ **|**-**|||**-**|||**-**|||**-**|||**-**|
||||||||||||||||
|**_Total payments_**||**39,304**|||**-**|||**-**|||**39,304**||**32,451**||
||||||||||||||||
|**_Net of receipts/(payments)_**||**3,314**|||**- **|||**-**|||**3,314**||**8,573**||
|**A5 Transfers between funds**||**-**|||**-**|||**-**|||**-**|||**-**|
|**A6 Cash funds last year end**||**113,091**|||**-**|||**-**||**113,091**|||||
|**_Cash funds this_**|**_year end_**|**116,405**|||**-**|||**-**||**116,405**|||**8,573**||
|**Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at**|||||**the**||**end of the period**||||||||



||||**Unrestricted**||**Restricted**||**Endowment**||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|**Categories**|**Details**||**funds**||**funds**||**funds**||
||||**to nearest £**||**to nearest £**||**to nearest £**||
|**B1 Cash funds**|Bank accounts||**113,091**||**-**||**-**||
||||**-**||**-**||**-**||
||||**-**||**-**||**-**||
||**_Total cash funds_**||**113,091**||**-**||**-**||
||(agree balances with receipts and payments||||||||
||account(s))||Agreement Error||OK||OK||
||||**Unrestricted**||**Restricted**||**Endowment**||
||||**funds**||**funds**||**funds**||
||**Details**||**to nearest £**||**to nearest £**||**to nearest £**||
|**B2 Other monetary assets**|||**-**||**-**||**-**||
||||**-**||**-**||**-**||
||||**-**||**-**||**-**||
||||**-**||**-**||**-**||
||||**-**||**-**||**-**||
||||**-**||**-**||**-**||
||**Details**||**Fund to which**<br>**asset belongs**||**Cost (optional)**||**Current value**<br>**(optional)**||
|**B3 Investment assets**|||||**-**||**-**||
||||||**-**||**-**||
||||||**-**||**-**||
||||||**-**||**-**||
||||||**-**||**-**||
||**Details**||**Fund to which**<br>**asset belongs**||**Cost (optional)**||**Current value**<br>**(optional)**||
|**B4 Assets retained for the**|||||**-**||**-**||
|**charity’s own use**|||||**-**||**-**||
||||||**-**||**-**||
||||||**-**||**-**||
||||||**-**||**-**||
||||||**-**||**-**||
||||||**-**||**-**||
||||||**-**||**-**||
||||||**-**||**-**||
||||**Fund to which**||**Amount due**||**When due**||
||**Details**||**liability relates**||**(optional)**||**(optional)**||
|**B5 Liabilities**|||||**-**||||
||||||**-**||||
||||||**-**||||
||||||**-**||||
||||||**-**||||
|Signed by one or two trustees on<br>behalf of all the trustees|Signature||Print Name||||Date of approval||
||CJRichardson||Christine JoyceRichardson||||!5November 2025||
||||||||||





Independent examiner’s report to the trustees of 

## **North Eastern Railway Association - Charity Number 1164199** 

I report to the Trustees on my examination of the financial statements of North Eastern Railway Association for the period 1 November 2024 to 31 October 2025 

## **Respective responsibilities of trustees and examiner** 

The charity's trustees are responsible for the preparation of the financial statements. The charity’s trustees consider that an audit is not required for this year under section 144 of the Charities Act 2011 (the Charities Act) and that an independent examination is needed. 

It is my responsibility to: 

Examine the financial statements under section 145 of the Charities Act, 

To follow the procedures laid down in the general Directions given by the Charity Commission (under section 145(5)(b) of the Charities Act, and 

To state whether particular matters have come to my attention. 

## **Basis of independent examiner’s statement** 

My examination was carried out in accordance with general Directions given by the Charity Commission.  An examination includes a review of the accounting records kept by the charity and a comparison of the financial statements presented with those records. It also includes consideration of any unusual items or disclosures in the financial statements, and seeking explanations from the trustees concerning any such matters. The procedures undertaken do not provide all the evidence that would be required in an audit, and consequently no opinion is given as to whether the financial statements present a ‘true and fair’ view and the report is limited to those matters set out in the statement below. 

## **Independent examiner's statement** 

I have completed my examination. I confirm no material matters have come to my attention which gives me cause to believe that in, any material respect: 

- The accounting records were not kept in accordance with section 130 of the Charities Act; or 

- The financial statements did not accord with the accounting records; or 

- The financial statements did not comply with the applicable requirements concerning the form and content of accounts set out in the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008 other than any requirement that the financial statements give a ‘true and fair’ view which is not a matter considered as part of an independent examination. 

I have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in this report in order to enable a proper understanding of the financial statements to be reached. 

Signed  CW Jagger 

4[th] December 2025