Volk's Electric Railway runs along Brighton's seafront on Madeira Drive in East Sussex, between Aquarium station (near Brighton Palace Pier) and Black Rock station (close to Brighton Marina), with an intermediate station and depot at Halfway. Opened by Brighton-born inventor and electrical-engineering pioneer Magnus Volk (1851–1937), it is the oldest operating electric railway in the world. The first quarter-mile (402 m) section opened in August 1883 on a 2 ft (610 mm) gauge with power supplied at 50 V DC through the running rails. In 1884 the line was extended to Paston Place (today's Halfway) and re-gauged to its present 2 ft 8½ in (825 mm); an off-set third rail was added in 1886, and the railway is now electrified at 110 V DC. The line was extended to Black Rock in 1901 and today runs about one mile (1.6 km).

The most photogenic angle is a three-quarter view of a vintage car running along the seafront with the beach, sea and the arches of Madeira Drive behind it. Aquarium station and its 2016–17 visitor centre give clean platform shots, while the Halfway depot viewing gallery is the place to photograph cars under cover and maintenance in progress. The Palace Pier makes a strong backdrop from the western end of the line, and Brighton Marina from the Black Rock end. Light is best in the morning and late afternoon along the south-facing seafront.

For railfans, Volk's is a working Victorian artefact rather than a re-creation: several of its cars are well over a century old and were built in the railway's own Paston Place workshops. The operating fleet includes Car 4 (built 1892, the oldest surviving car), Cars 6, 7 and 8 (1901), Car 9 (1910) and Car 10 (1926), alongside a 1988 Motor Rail/Alan Keef diesel works locomotive. Cars 4, 6 and 10 were professionally restored in 2016–2018 through a £1.6 million Heritage Lottery Fund grant that also built a new visitor centre at Aquarium and a five-road depot with a public viewing gallery at Halfway. In 2024 the Heritage Railway Association named Volk's its Railway of the Year — the first non-steam line to win the award. The off-set third-rail system pioneered here is a direct ancestor of the third-rail electrification still used on the Brighton main line today.

A ride is short and informal — the full one-mile run between Aquarium and Black Rock takes roughly twelve minutes each way, with trains aiming to depart every 15 minutes along the top of the shingle beach, the sea on one side and the arches of Madeira Drive on the other. The semi-open vintage cars carry around 40 passengers and have an unmistakably Victorian feel. The Aquarium terminus, rebuilt in 2016–2017, houses a ticket office, café, toilets and a small exhibition centre; at Halfway a viewing gallery overlooks the working depot. Crowds build on warm summer weekends and during Brighton events, while spring and autumn weekdays are quieter. The railway is cashless and there is no need to pre-book — passengers simply turn up and ride.