The Barry Tourist Railway (formerly the Barry Island Railway) was a railway developed to attract visitors to Barry in the Vale of Glamorgan, South Wales. It was a key element of the Barry Rail Centre which also includes engineering and training facilities.

An unusual aspect of the railway was that, for several hundred yards across the Causeway from Barry to Barry Island, the trackbed ran directly alongside the Network Rail track, which used the original up line, while the Barry Tourist Railway used the down line. This continued from Barry, crossing the Causeway and the 149-yard (136 m) Barry Island viaduct, after which the two lines diverged into separate platforms at Barry Island. The railway did not consider itself a line but rather a network, as it operated two different routes. This is illustrated in the map below, with Network Rail shown in red, and the tourist railway shown in blue.

In November 2008, the landowner the Vale of Glamorgan Council, undertook a commercial tender exercise, which terminated the lease of previous operator the Vale of Glamorgan Railway in favour of a private operator, Cambrian Transport, under a 20-year-long lease. Operations commenced in December 2009 and a full year's programme of services operated during 2010. Details were shown on the Council website. Services were operated by IRIS II DMU (Class 101 twin-set), Class 26 No. 26 038, Class 73s 73 118 & 73 133 with a former Gatwick Express coaching stock set in push-pull mode, Class 20 20 228, Class 08 08 503, 0-6-0 Pannier Tank locomotive No. 9466, Great Western Steam Rail Motor No.93, Metropolitan Tank No.1, Hunslet 0-6-0T Jessie and an 8F tender loco.

In 1979, the Butetown Historic Railway Society was formed in Cardiff, running a service along a short section of the Taff Vale Railway line from Cardiff Bute Road railway station northwards towards Queen St Station. As plans for the redevelopment of parts of Cardiff by the Cardiff Bay Development Corporation became clearer, the site was required for other purposes, and the railway was asked to leave. The Vale of Glamorgan Council bought Barry Island railway station and the newly-formed Vale of Glamorgan Railway Company was offered a lease of it, with financial aid from the Welsh Development Agency.

The project was supported by the Welsh Development Agency, with funding also being obtained from the European Regional Development Fund. These funds, together with some funding from the Vale of Glamorgan Railway Company, enabled Barry Island station to be refurbished by 1996. Further funds were awarded by the Welsh National Assembly in 2002, which were used to reinstate the line over the causeway between Barry Island and the mainland, and subsequently to extend the line to Gladstone Road Bridge. Trains were run from the station to the low level Hood Road Goods Shed and a new high level platform at Woodham Halt, later extended to Gladstone Bridge. In 1999, the railway attracted 8,500 visitors, and this had risen to 13,000 by 2004. The council supported the project with an annual grant of £65,000.

From mid-2006, the Vale of Glamorgan Council began to consider how the range of heritage and commercial activities associated with the railway project could be expanded, and the annual cost to the council of supporting the project could be reduced. By December 2007 they had identified some solutions. The Heritage Skills Training Centre and some adjacent track would be leased to a group called BRECO, who proposed to run a training facility covering restoration, railways and heritage, which would enable participants to gain NVQ qualifications. The BRECO group would also lease some office space and the storage area at Hood Road goods shed. There was a proposal by the Vale of Glamorgan Railway Company, acting on behalf of themselves, the Traditional Traction/D9521 Group and Barry Railcar Project, to lease the wheel drop shed and mess building at Barry Rail Depot, but the council decided that their business case was not sufficiently robust for this to proceed. The council also decided to put the operation of the railway out to tender, but to allow the existing operation to continue through 2008 while the tendering process was being undertaken.

The closing date for tenders was 26 September 2008. Of the six parties who were initially interested, only three submitted tenders. The successful tender was from Cambrian Transport Limited, a commercial company led by John Buxton, who was also responsible for creating the BRECO group. Their plans included extending the tracks to the Docks Office, and creating a Welsh National Railway Museum, utilising the Plymouth Road goods shed. They envisaged investing around £1 million in the project over the first eight years, and had an experienced management team. Furthermore, they were not expecting the council to fund any of their operation. A bid from Newco, run by Mike Thompson and Graham Lee, both of whom had heritage railway experience, was rejected because they failed to produce the required business plan.

Cambrian Transport had been the Council's railway adviser and contractor since the Barry Railway Project started. The company had been formed in 1995 by John Buxton, who had previously been responsible for managing the South Wales Valley Lines for British Rail. They had expertise in many aspects of railway contracting and consultancy. When they won the contract to operate the railway, the Vale of Glamorgan Railway Company moved all of their rolling stock, including a former National Coal Board saddle tank from Maesteg Colliery called Pamela, to the Garw Valley Railway at Pontycymer.