The
National Railway Museum (NRM) is a
museumA museum is an institution that cares for a collection of artifacts and other objects of scientific, artistic, cultural, or historical importance and makes them available for public viewing through exhibits that may be permanent or temporary. Most large museums are located in major cities...
in
YorkYork is a walled city, situated at the confluence of the Rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. The city has a rich heritage and has provided the backdrop to major political events throughout much of its two millennia of existence...
forming part of the
BritishThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
National Museum of Science and IndustryThe National Museum of Science and Industry is a collection of British museums, comprising:* The Science Museum, incorporating the Science Museum Library and the Wellcome collections of the history of medicine at South Kensington in London....
and telling the story of
rail transportRail transport is a means of conveyance of passengers and goods by way of wheeled vehicles running on rail tracks. In contrast to road transport, where vehicles merely run on a prepared surface, rail vehicles are also directionally guided by the tracks they run on...
in Britain and its impact on society. It has won many awards, including the
European Museum of the Year AwardThe European Museum of the Year Award , established in 1977, is presented each year by the European Museum Forum , under the Council of Europe...
in 2001. It is the home of the national collection of historically significant railway vehicles, as well as a collection of other artefacts and both written and pictorial records.
Overview
The NRM in York displays a collection of over 100
locomotiveA locomotive is a railway vehicle that provides the motive power for a train. The word originates from the Latin loco – "from a place", ablative of locus, "place" + Medieval Latin motivus, "causing motion", and is a shortened form of the term locomotive engine, first used in the early 19th...
s and nearly 200 other items of
rolling stockRolling stock comprises all the vehicles that move on a railway. It usually includes both powered and unpowered vehicles, for example locomotives, railroad cars, coaches and wagons...
, virtually all of which either ran on the railways of
Great BritainGreat Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
or were built there. Also on the 20 acre (8.1 ha) site are many hundreds of thousands of other items and records of social, technical, artistic and historical interest, exhibited mostly in three large halls of a former motive power depot next to the
East Coast Main LineThe East Coast Main Line is a long electrified high-speed railway link between London, Peterborough, Doncaster, Wakefield, Leeds, York, Darlington, Newcastle and Edinburgh...
, near
York railway stationYork railway station is a main-line railway station in the city of York, England. It lies on the East Coast Main Line north of London's King's Cross station towards Edinburgh's Waverley Station...
. It is the largest museum of its type in Britain, the largest in the world being
La Cité du TrainThe Cité du train , the French national railway museum is the biggest railway museum in the world, this one being situated in Mulhouse...
in the French town of
MulhouseMulhouse |mill]] hamlet) is a city and commune in eastern France, close to the Swiss and German borders. With a population of 110,514 and 278,206 inhabitants in the metropolitan area in 2006, it is the largest city in the Haut-Rhin département, and the second largest in the Alsace region after...
. It also has more visitors than any other British museum outside London.
The NRM was established on its present site, the former York North locomotive depot, in 1975, when it took over the former
British RailBritish Railways , which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was the operator of most of the rail transport in Great Britain between 1948 and 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the "Big Four" British railway companies and lasted until the gradual privatisation of British Rail, in stages...
ways collection located in
ClaphamClapham is a district in south London, England, within the London Borough of Lambeth.Clapham covers the postcodes of SW4 and parts of SW9, SW8 and SW12. Clapham Common is shared with the London Borough of Wandsworth, although Lambeth has responsibility for running the common as a whole. According...
and the York Railway Museum located elsewhere in the city; since then, the collection has continued to grow.
The museum is a short walk from the railway station in York, either on the road or via a staircase from the rear of the platforms. A "roadtrain" runs from the city centre (near
York MinsterYork Minster is a Gothic cathedral in York, England and is one of the largest of its kind in Northern Europe alongside Cologne Cathedral. The minster is the seat of the Archbishop of York, the second-highest office of the Church of England, and is the cathedral for the Diocese of York; it is run by...
) to the museum on Leeman Road.
York Park and RideYork park and ride is a park and ride system operated by First in the English city of York. It was designed and introduced to relieve York's overcrowded city centre car parks. Many of the car park developments, bus priority measures and new vehicles have been part-funded by City of York Council...
also serve the museum from the car park entrance, on Line 2 (Rawcliffe Bar-York). Admission to the museum has been free since 2001. It is open daily from 10 am to 6 pm.
LocomotionShildon Locomotion Museum is a railway museum in Shildon, County Durham, England. The museum is a branch of the National Railway Museum , which is part of the National Museum of Science and Industry...
– the National Railway Museum in
ShildonShildon is a town in County Durham, in England. It is situated 2 miles to the south east of Bishop Auckland and 11 miles north of Darlington. It is 13 miles away from Durham, 23 miles from Sunderland and 23 miles from Newcastle-upon-Tyne...
,
County DurhamCounty Durham is a ceremonial county and unitary district in north east England. The county town is Durham. The largest settlement in the ceremonial county is the town of Darlington...
was opened in 2004 and is operated by the NRM in conjunction with
Durham County CouncilCounty Durham is a ceremonial county and unitary district in north east England. The county town is Durham. The largest settlement in the ceremonial county is the town of Darlington...
. It houses more of the National Collection in a new building and a historic site around the former workshop of
Timothy HackworthTimothy Hackworth was a steam locomotive engineer who lived in Shildon, County Durham, England and was the first locomotive superintendent of the Stockton and Darlington Railway.- Youth and early work :...
and attracts a further 100,000 visitors annually.
National Collection
There are approximately 280 rail vehicles in the National Collection, with around 100 being at York at any one time and the remainder divided between
LocomotionShildon Locomotion Museum is a railway museum in Shildon, County Durham, England. The museum is a branch of the National Railway Museum , which is part of the National Museum of Science and Industry...
at
ShildonShildon is a town in County Durham, in England. It is situated 2 miles to the south east of Bishop Auckland and 11 miles north of Darlington. It is 13 miles away from Durham, 23 miles from Sunderland and 23 miles from Newcastle-upon-Tyne...
and other museums and
heritage railwaythumb|right|the Historical [[Khyber train safari|Khyber Railway]] goes through the [[Khyber Pass]], [[Pakistan]]A heritage railway , preserved railway , tourist railway , or tourist railroad is a railway that is run as a tourist attraction, in some cases by volunteers, and...
s. The earliest are
wagonwayWagonways consisted of the horses, equipment and tracks used for hauling wagons, which preceded steam powered railways. The terms "plateway", "tramway" and in someplaces, "dramway" are also found.- Early developments :...
vehicles of about 1815. The permanent display includes "Palaces on Wheels", a collection of
Royal TrainA royal train is a set of carriages dedicated for the use of the monarch or other members of that particular royal family. Most monarchies with a railway system employ a set of royal carriages.-Australia:...
saloons from
Queen VictoriaVictoria was the monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death. From 1 May 1876, she used the additional title of Empress of India....
's early trains through to those used by
Queen Elizabeth IIElizabeth II is the constitutional monarch of 16 sovereign states known as the Commonwealth realms: the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize,...
up to the 1970s, among them some of the first rail vehicles to be set aside for preservation.
Other key exhibits normally to be seen at York include the 1846
Furness Railway No. 3Furness Railway No.3, "Old Coppernob", is a preserved English steam locomotive. It acquired its nickname because of the copper cladding to its dome-shaped "haystack" firebox....
"Coppernob" locomotive, and the more modern express passenger
steam locomotiveA steam locomotive is a railway locomotive that produces its power through a steam engine. These locomotives are fueled by burning some combustible material, usually coal, wood or oil, to produce steam in a boiler, which drives the steam engine...
s
London and North Eastern RailwayThe London and North Eastern Railway was the second-largest of the "Big Four" railway companies created by the Railways Act 1921 in Britain...
Class A3 No. 4472 Flying ScotsmanThe LNER Class A3 Pacific locomotive No. 4472 Flying Scotsman was built in 1923 for the London and North Eastern Railway at Doncaster Works to a design of H.N. Gresley...
(added to the collection in 2004),
its streamlined sister
Class A4 No. 4468 MallardNumber 4468 Mallard is a London and North Eastern Railway Class A4 4-6-2 Pacific steam locomotive built at Doncaster, England in 1938. While in other respects a relatively typical member of its class, it is historically significant for being the holder of the official world speed record for steam...
and
London, Midland and Scottish RailwayThe London Midland and Scottish Railway was a British railway company. It was formed on 1 January 1923 under the Railways Act of 1921, which required the grouping of over 120 separate railway companies into just four...
Princess Coronation Class No. 6229 Duchess of HamiltonLondon Midland and Scottish Railway Princess Coronation Class 6229 Duchess of Hamilton is a preserved steam locomotive.- Service :...
.
Flying Scotsman is among the exhibits intended for operation on the
National RailNational Rail is a title used by the Association of Train Operating Companies as a generic term to define the passenger rail services operated in Great Britain...
network from time to time.
The museum has imported several major vehicles for display: the
ChineseRail transport is the most commonly used mode of long-distance transportation in the People's Republic of China. Almost all rail operations are handled by the Ministry of Railways, which is part of the State Council of the People's Republic of China...
Class KF7 4-8-4 locomotive donated in 1981 was built in Britain and the
Wagons-Lits sleeping carThe sleeping car or sleeper is a railway/railroad passenger car that can accommodate all its passengers in beds of one kind or another, primarily for the purpose of making nighttime travel more restful. The first such cars saw sporadic use on American railroads in the 1830s and could be configured...
donated in 1980 had been used on the Paris-London
Night FerryThe Night Ferry was an international sleeper train between London Victoria and Paris Gare du Nord . It was operated by the SNCF and the Southern Railway then, following nationalisation on 1 January 1948, the Southern Region of British Railways.-Rolling stock:Introduced on the night of 5 October...
service. The single exception to the rule of exhibits associated with Britain is the Japanese
0 Series ShinkansenThe trains were the first Shinkansen trainsets built to run on Japan's new Tōkaidō Shinkansen high-speed line which opened in 1964. The last remaining trainsets were withdrawn in 2008.-History:...
leading vehicle which was donated to the museum by the
West Japan Railway Company, also referred to as , is one of the Japan Railways Group companies and operates in western Honshū. It has its headquarters in Kita-ku, Osaka.-History:...
in 2001 and which now forms part of an award-winning display, and is the only Shinkansen vehicle on exhibit outside Japan.
Rail vehicles on display are exchanged from time to time with other organisations, and examples of new-build stock from the current industry sometimes visit the museum for short periods.
Other physically large exhibits are the
Stockton and Darlington RailwayThe Stockton and Darlington Railway , which opened in 1825, was the world's first publicly subscribed passenger railway. It was 26 miles long, and was built in north-eastern England between Witton Park and Stockton-on-Tees via Darlington, and connected to several collieries near Shildon...
Gaunless Bridge and several stationary winding engines used on railway inclines.
The many other two and three-dimensional elements of the collection include signalling equipment, road vehicles, ship models,
posterA poster is any piece of printed paper designed to be attached to a wall or vertical surface. Typically posters include both textual and graphic elements, although a poster may be either wholly graphical or wholly text. Posters are designed to be both eye-catching and informative. Posters may be...
s, drawings and other artwork,
ticketsThe Edmondson railway ticket was a system for validating the payment of railway fares, and accounting for the revenue raised, introduced in the 1840s. It is named after its inventor, Thomas Edmondson, a trained cabinet maker, who became a station master on the Newcastle and Carlisle Railway in...
, nameplates, staff uniforms,
clockA clock is an instrument used to indicate, keep, and co-ordinate time. The word clock is derived ultimately from the Celtic words clagan and clocca meaning "bell". A silent instrument missing such a mechanism has traditionally been known as a timepiece...
s,
watchA watch is a small timepiece, typically worn either on the wrist or attached on a chain and carried in a pocket, with wristwatches being the most common type of watch used today. They evolved in the 17th century from spring powered clocks, which appeared in the 15th century. The first watches were...
es,
furnitureFurniture is the mass noun for the movable objects intended to support various human activities such as seating and sleeping in beds, to hold objects at a convenient height for work using horizontal surfaces above the ground, or to store things...
and equipment from railway companies'
hotelA hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. The provision of basic accommodation, in times past, consisting only of a room with a bed, a cupboard, a small table and a washstand has largely been replaced by rooms with modern facilities, including en-suite bathrooms...
s, refreshment rooms and offices (including company
sealsA seal can be a figure impressed in wax, clay, or some other medium, or embossed on paper, with the purpose of authenticating a document ; but the term can also mean the device for making such impressions, being essentially a mould with the mirror image of the design carved in sunken- relief or...
) and a wide range of models, some of which are operated on the museum's
O scaleO scale is a scale commonly used for toy trains and model railroading. Originally introduced by German toy manufacturer Märklin around 1900, by the 1930s three-rail alternating current O gauge was the most common model railroad scale in the United States and remained so until the early 1960s...
model railwayRailway modelling or model railroading is a hobby in which rail transport systems are modelled at a reduced scale...
(originated in 1982).
The museum is also the repository for a large collection of engineering drawings from railway workshops and for official photographs. Thanks largely to the initiative of the late R. C. (Dick) Riley, these have been supplemented by the collections of a number of amateur photographers such as
Eric TreacyThe Rt Revd Eric Treacy MBE was an English railway photographer and Anglican Bishop.Born in London, Treacy was educated at Haberdashers' Aske's School and at King's College London, though he left without taking a degree...
and
H. Gordon TideyHerbert Gordon Tidey was an English railway photographer. Described as "one of the fathers of railway photography" he was active from the 1890s through the 1950s.Writing in 1954, he described the background to his work as follows:...
.
The museum’s own photographers have also worked on projects recording the contemporary railway, including the
Channel TunnelThe Channel Tunnel is a undersea rail tunnel linking Folkestone, Kent in the United Kingdom with Coquelles, Pas-de-Calais near Calais in northern France beneath the English Channel at the Strait of Dover. At its lowest point, it is deep...
construction. In 1999/2000 the Museum began to collect recordings of former railway staff for a
National Archive of Railway Oral History. It has also been given the archive of steam train recordings by
Peter Handford. The museum library houses a significant collection of railway periodicals, timetables and official publications. The new Search Engine facility and archive has made these available for study and enjoyment to a wider range of visitors from early 2008. In 2009 the Forsythe Collection of travel and transport ephemera was acquired for the collection.
Origins
Although there had been amateur attempts to establish a national railway museum from the late 19th century, the National Collection today results from the fusion of two long-running official initiatives. One was led by the State museums sector, evidencing pioneering technology, and the other by the railway industry, in which the key contribution came from the
North Eastern RailwayThe North Eastern Railway , was an English railway company. It was incorporated in 1854, when four existing companies were combined, and was absorbed into the London and North Eastern Railway at the Grouping in 1923...
as successors to the historic
Stockton and Darlington RailwayThe Stockton and Darlington Railway , which opened in 1825, was the world's first publicly subscribed passenger railway. It was 26 miles long, and was built in north-eastern England between Witton Park and Stockton-on-Tees via Darlington, and connected to several collieries near Shildon...
.
What became the
Science Museum (London)The Science Museum is one of the three major museums on Exhibition Road, South Kensington, London in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. It is part of the National Museum of Science and Industry. The museum is a major London tourist attraction....
collection was begun in the 1860s by the Patent Office, whose museum included such early relics as
Puffing Billy, Stephenson’s
Rocket and
Agenoria (sister locomotive to
Stourbridge LionThe Stourbridge Lion was a railroad steam locomotive. It was not only the first locomotive to be operated in the United States, it was also one of the first locomotives to operate outside of England, where it was manufactured in 1828....
), which was outhoused to York at an early date.
Preservation of redundant equipment by the railway companies themselves was a matter of chance. Sometimes relics were stored in company workshops and offices and some were destroyed as circumstances changed. Where put on public display at all the equipment was usually mounted on railway stations in a case or on a plinth.
Coppernob at
Barrow-in-FurnessBarrow-in-Furness is an industrial town and seaport which forms about half the territory of the wider Borough of Barrow-in-Furness in the county of Cumbria, England. It lies north of Liverpool, northwest of Manchester and southwest from the county town of Carlisle...
,
Derwent and
Locomotion at
DarlingtonDarlington is a market town in the Borough of Darlington, part of the ceremonial county of County Durham, England. It lies on the small River Skerne, a tributary of the River Tees, not far from the main river. It is the main population centre in the borough, with a population of 97,838 as of 2001...
and
Tiny at
Newton AbbotNewton Abbot is a market town and civil parish in the Teignbridge District of Devon, England on the River Teign, with a population of 23,580....
were long-lived examples of this form of display.
The first railway museums were opened at Hamar in
NorwayNorway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
(1897) and
NurembergNuremberg[p] is a city in the German state of Bavaria, in the administrative region of Middle Franconia. Situated on the Pegnitz river and the Rhine–Main–Danube Canal, it is located about north of Munich and is Franconia's largest city. The population is 505,664...
in
GermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
(1899). These inspired talk of doing the same in Britain, both in the 1890s and again in 1908, but this came to nothing at that time. Indeed, two of the
Great Western RailwayThe Great Western Railway was a British railway company that linked London with the south-west and west of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament in 1835 and ran its first trains in 1838...
’s earliest broad-gauge locomotives,
North Star and
Lord of the Isles, which had been set aside at
Swindon WorksSwindon railway works were built by the Great Western Railway in 1841 in Swindon in the English county of Wiltshire.-History:In 1835 Parliament approved the construction of a railway between London and Bristol. Its Chief Engineer was Isambard Kingdom Brunel.From 1836, Brunel had been buying...
, were cut up in 1906 for lack of space and several other relics were similarly lost in subsequent years.
From 1880, J. B. Harper of the North Eastern had been collecting material much of which was exhibited on the occasion of the S.& D.R. centenary in 1925; and which then formed the basis of a museum opened at
YorkYork is a walled city, situated at the confluence of the Rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. The city has a rich heritage and has provided the backdrop to major political events throughout much of its two millennia of existence...
by the
London and North Eastern RailwayThe London and North Eastern Railway was the second-largest of the "Big Four" railway companies created by the Railways Act 1921 in Britain...
in 1928 under the curatorship of E. M. Bywell.
The smaller exhibits were housed in the old station buildings and the rolling stock and other large exhibits in the former locomotive erecting and repair shops of the old
York and North Midland RailwayThe York and North Midland Railway was a railway company in the United Kingdom which opened in 1839, connecting York, with the Leeds and Selby Railway and in 1840 with the North Midland Railway at Normanton near Leeds.-Origins:...
(demolished after the museum closed). Despite this however, the locomotives were displayed on short lengths of track acting as plinths, very much in traditional museum style. It was only when the NRM was formed that Britain acquired a rail-served railway museum where large exhibits could come and go with ease.
The collection was dominated by items from the North Eastern Railway, together with
Great Northern RailwayThe Great Northern Railway was a British railway company established by the Great Northern Railway Act of 1846. On 1 January 1923 the company lost its identity as a constituent of the newly formed London and North Eastern Railway....
items. The other three ‘
Big FourThe Big Four was a name used to describe the four largest railway companies in the United Kingdom in the period 1923-1947. The name was coined by the Railway Magazine in its issue of February 1923: "The Big Four of the New Railway Era".The Big Four were:...
’ railway companies showed little interest in contributing to the LNER’s initiative, though eventually one locomotive representative of each did find its way there: the Great Western's
City of TruroNumber 3440 City Of Truro is a Great Western Railway 3700 Class 4-4-0 locomotive, designed by George Jackson Churchward and built at the GWR Swindon Works in 1903. . It is one of the contenders for the first steam locomotive to travel in excess of...
,
London and North Western RailwayThe London and North Western Railway was a British railway company between 1846 and 1922. It was created by the merger of three companies – the Grand Junction Railway, the London and Birmingham Railway and the Manchester and Birmingham Railway...
Columbine and
London, Brighton and South Coast RailwayThe London, Brighton and South Coast Railway was a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1846 to 1922. Its territory formed a rough triangle, with London at its apex, practically the whole coastline of Sussex as its base, and a large part of Surrey...
B1 ClassThe London, Brighton and South Coast Railway B1 Class is a class of 0-4-2 express passenger steam locomotives, known from the name of the first, No. 214, as the "Gladstones".-History:...
Gladstone.
The GWR assembled a valuable collection of small objects, mounted privately in a long corridor at Paddington station, and in 1925 it built a replica of
North Star. It preserved
City of Truro and
Tiny in 1931 and
Shannon in 1946.
The LMS had its own collection of small objects at
EustonEuston railway station, also known as London Euston, is a central London railway terminus in the London Borough of Camden. It is the sixth busiest rail terminal in London . It is one of 18 railway stations managed by Network Rail, and is the southern terminus of the West Coast Main Line...
. It also began to build up a collection of historic locomotives, which included
Caledonian 123Caledonian Railway Single No. 123 is a preserved Scottish steam locomotive. The unique 4-2-2 was built by Neilson and Company in 1886, works No. 3553 as an exhibition locomotive. In 1914 it was placed on the Caledonian Railway duplicate list, and renumbered 1123...
,
Columbine,
Cornwall,
Hardwicke, Highland 103, Midland 118 and
Pet. Three others, set aside for preservation at
Crewe WorksCrewe railway works is a British railway engineering facility built in 1840 by the Grand Junction Railway. It is located in the town of Crewe, in the county of Cheshire....
, were scrapped in a change of policy in 1932. The LMS set aside one further locomotive (Midland 158A) before it was overtaken by nationalisation. It also succeeded in preserving a collection of historic royal saloons at
WolvertonWolverton is part of Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England.Wolverton may also refer to:Places in England:*Wolverton, Dorset*Wolverton, Kent*Wolverton, Hampshire*Wolverton, Shropshire*Wolverton, WarwickshirePlaces in the United States:...
and built a replica
Rocket, with six replica carriages, for the Liverpool & Manchester Railway centenary in 1930, and a replica
Grand Junction RailwayThe Grand Junction Railway was an early railway company in the United Kingdom, which existed between 1833 and 1846 when it was merged into the London and North Western Railway...
Travelling Post Office.
The
Southern RailwayThe Southern Railway was a British railway company established in the 1923 Grouping. It linked London with the Channel ports, South West England, South coast resorts and Kent...
inherited three preserved carriages of the
Bodmin and Wadebridge RailwayThe Bodmin and Wadebridge Railway was a railway line opened in 1834 in Cornwall, United Kingdom. It linked the important town of Bodmin with the harbour at Wadebridge and also quarries at places such as Wenford...
, long displayed at York and at
Waterloo StationWaterloo station, also known as London Waterloo, is a central London railway terminus and London Underground complex. The station is owned and operated by Network Rail and is close to the South Bank of the River Thames, and in Travelcard Zone 1....
, but otherwise had no policy of preserving redundant equipment.
Ryde was preserved from 1934 until cut up in 1940; the only other locomotive preserved by the Southern was
Boxhill in 1947. (
Gladstone was preserved by the
Stephenson Locomotive SocietyThe Stephenson Locomotive Society was founded in the UK in Autumn 1909 for the study of rail transport and locomotives.It was originally named The Stephenson Society in honour of George Stephenson. In late 1911 the professional engineers seceded from the Society to form the Junior Institution of...
as a private initiative and much later (in 1959) donated to the
British Transport CommissionThe British Transport Commission was created by Clement Attlee's post-war Labour government as a part of its nationalisation programme, to oversee railways, canals and road freight transport in Great Britain...
.)
The
nationalisationNationalisation, also spelled nationalization, is the process of taking an industry or assets into government ownership by a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to private assets, but may also mean assets owned by lower levels of government, such as municipalities, being...
of British transport in 1948 gave the opportunity for a more consolidated approach and a report was produced by the British Transport Commission in 1951. Amongst other things this recommended a curator be appointed for the Commission’s holdings (John M. Scholes), retention of the York museum, creation of other regional museums (not carried out in the way proposed), a small relics display in the old Great Hall at
Euston railway stationEuston railway station, also known as London Euston, is a central London railway terminus in the London Borough of Camden. It is the sixth busiest rail terminal in London . It is one of 18 railway stations managed by Network Rail, and is the southern terminus of the West Coast Main Line...
(done on a temporary basis) and a large museum of collections elsewhere in London. For the latter, the former station at
Nine ElmsNine Elms is a suburb of London, situated in the far north-eastern corner of the London Borough of Wandsworth between Battersea and Vauxhall.It is primarily an industrial area, dominated by Battersea Power Station, Battersea Dogs and Cats Home, railway lines, a major Royal Mail sorting office and...
was originally favoured as a site, but what was eventually opened in 1961 was the Museum of British Transport in a former
busA bus is a road vehicle designed to carry passengers. Buses can have a capacity as high as 300 passengers. The most common type of bus is the single-decker bus, with larger loads carried by double-decker buses and articulated buses, and smaller loads carried by midibuses and minibuses; coaches are...
garage in
ClaphamClapham is a district in south London, England, within the London Borough of Lambeth.Clapham covers the postcodes of SW4 and parts of SW9, SW8 and SW12. Clapham Common is shared with the London Borough of Wandsworth, although Lambeth has responsibility for running the common as a whole. According...
.
An official list of locomotives for preservation was compiled,
and many were stored in sheds and works throughout the country, others being placed on loan to local authority museums. The
'Steam' MuseumSTEAM – Museum of the Great Western Railway, also known as Swindon Steam Railway Museum, is located at the site of the old railway works in Swindon, England – Wiltshire's 'railway town'...
at
SwindonSwindon is a large town within the borough of Swindon and ceremonial county of Wiltshire, in South West England. It is midway between Bristol, west and Reading, east. London is east...
still displays a large number of items from the National Collection, while the
Glasgow Museum of TransportThe Glasgow Museum of Transport in Glasgow, Scotland was established in 1964 and initially located at a former tram depot in Pollokshields. From 1987 the museum was relocated to the city's Kelvin Hall...
was also indebted to it, although many of the Scottish relics (including
NBRNBR is an abbreviation with several meanings:In rail:* New Brunswick Railway, a former Canadian railway company absorbed by the Canadian Pacific Railway* North Bay Railway, a light railway system for tourists in Scarborough, North Yorkshire...
K 'Glen' ClassThe NBR K Class is a class of 4-4-0 steam locomotive of the North British Railway. The first batch was designed by Matthew Holmes in 1902 and had 6' 6" driving wheels for express passenger work. Three more batches were designed by William P. Reid with 6' 0" driving wheels for mixed traffic work...
4-4-0Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, 4-4-0 represents the wheel arrangement of four leading wheels on two axles , four powered and coupled driving wheels on two axles, and no trailing wheels...
No. 256
Glen Douglas currently at the Bo'ness & Kinneil Railway) no longer form part of the National Collection.
The Beeching Report recommended that British rail should stop running museums, and a campaign was led by transport historian
L. T. C. RoltLionel Thomas Caswall Rolt was a prolific English writer and the biographer of major civil engineering figures including Isambard Kingdom Brunel and Thomas Telford...
and others to create a new museum.
Agreement was reached under terms in the Transport Act 1968 for B.R. to provide premises to be occupied by a National Railway Museum which would be a branch of the
National Museum of Science and IndustryThe National Museum of Science and Industry is a collection of British museums, comprising:* The Science Museum, incorporating the Science Museum Library and the Wellcome collections of the history of medicine at South Kensington in London....
then under Dame
Margaret WestonDame Margaret Kate Weston, DBE, FMA was the Director of the Science Museum, London, UK.- Life :Margaret Weston was born in Oakridge, Gloucestershire, the daughter of a headmaster....
and the first English
national museumA national museum is a museum maintained by a nation.The following is a list of national museums:-Australia:*Australian National Aviation Museum*Australian National Maritime Museum*, Sydney*Australian War Memorial*Museum Victoria...
outside London.
The building provided was the former locomotive
roundhouseA roundhouse is a building used by railroads for servicing locomotives. Roundhouses are large, circular or semicircular structures that were traditionally located surrounding or adjacent to turntables...
at York North (rebuilt in the 1950s), alongside the East Coast Main Line. The old museum and that at Clapham were closed in 1973. A Sainsbury's
supermarketA supermarket, a form of grocery store, is a self-service store offering a wide variety of food and household merchandise, organized into departments...
now stands on the Clapham site. Some items were retained in the capital and formed the basis of the London Transport Museum in Covent Garden. Some from York were re-located to the
Darlington Railway Centre and MuseumDarlington Railway Centre and Museum, also known as Head of Steam, is located on the 1825 route of the Stockton and Darlington Railway which was the world's first steam powered passenger railway. Run by Darlington Borough Council the museum is located in the northern suburbs of Darlington in the...
. Exhibits from the previous museums at York and Clapham moved to the new site were supplemented by vehicles taken from storage at Preston Park in
BrightonBrighton is the major part of the city of Brighton and Hove in East Sussex, England on the south coast of Great Britain...
and elsewhere and restored. Creation of the York museum was largely in the hands of its first keeper,
Dr John CoileyJohn Arthur Coiley was an English museum curator, principally associated with the National Railway Museum in York from its formation in the 1973-5 period, through to his retirement as keeper of the museum in 1992.-Biography:...
,
his deputy Peter Semmens,
John van Riemsdijk of the Science Museum and
David JenkinsonDavid Jenkinson was a railway modeller and historian, who had a particular interest in the London, Midland and Scottish Railway and was president of the LMS Society.- Biography :...
.
Growth 1975-2000
The museum was opened by
Prince Philip, Duke of EdinburghPrince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh is the husband of Elizabeth II. He is the United Kingdom's longest-serving consort and the oldest serving spouse of a reigning British monarch....
in 1975. The opening coincided with the 150th anniversary celebrations of the opening of the Stockton & Darlington Railway, for which several working exhibits were provided. By comparison with the museum’s predecessors coverage of ordinary passenger coaches and non-steam motive power was enhanced, but a popular new exhibit was
ex-Southern RailwayThe Southern Region was a region of British Railways from 1948. The region ceased to be an operating unit in its own right in the 1980s and was wound up at the end of 1992. The region covered south London, southern England and the south coast, including the busy commuter belt areas of Kent, Sussex...
Merchant Navy ClassThe SR Merchant Navy class , was a class of air-smoothed 4-6-2 Pacific steam locomotives designed for the Southern Railway of the United Kingdom by Oliver Bulleid...
No. 35029
Ellerman Lines sectionedIn archaeology a section is a view in part of the archaeological sequence showing it in the vertical plane, as a cross section, and thereby illustrating its profile and stratigraphy. This may make it easier to view and interpret as it developed over time....
to show the workings of a steam locomotive. The new museum received over a million visitors in its first year and was favourably received by critics.
Significant events of 1979 were the restoration of a train of appropriate vehicles to mark the centenary of on-train catering and an exhibition to mark the centenary of
railway electric tractionRailway electric traction describes the various types of locomotive and multiple units that are used on electrification systems around the world.-History:...
which drew attention to the museum's important collections in this area. Also in 1979 the museum commissioned a working replica of
Stephenson's RocketStephenson's Rocket was an early steam locomotive of 0-2-2 wheel arrangement, built in Newcastle Upon Tyne at the Forth Street Works of Robert Stephenson and Company in 1829.- Design innovations :...
for the following year’s
Liverpool and Manchester RailwayThe Liverpool and Manchester Railway was the world's first inter-city passenger railway in which all the trains were timetabled and were hauled for most of the distance solely by steam locomotives. The line opened on 15 September 1830 and ran between the cities of Liverpool and Manchester in North...
150th anniversary. This has since represented the museum at events around the world.
Another working replica was added to the collection for the 150th anniversary of establishment of the
Great Western RailwayThe Great Western Railway was a British railway company that linked London with the south-west and west of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament in 1835 and ran its first trains in 1838...
in 1985: that of the broad gauge locomotive
Iron DukeThe Great Western Railway Iron Duke Class 4-2-2 was a class of broad gauge steam locomotives for express passenger train work.-History:The prototype locomotive, Great Western, was built as a 2-2-2 locomotive in April 1846, but was soon converted to a 4-2-2 arrangement...
.
Concerns about the condition of the
concreteConcrete is a composite construction material, composed of cement and other cementitious materials such as fly ash and slag cement, aggregate , water and chemical admixtures.The word concrete comes from the Latin word...
roof structure on the main building brought forward major changes to the museum in 1990. To maintain a presence at York, the former York goods depot across Leeman Road, already in use as a museum store (the Peter Allen Building), was configured to display trains as if in a passenger station, and this together with the adjacent South Yard was marketed as
The Great Railway Show. A further selection of exhibits formed the
National Railway Museum on Tour on display for a season in the former
Swindon WorksSwindon railway works were built by the Great Western Railway in 1841 in Swindon in the English county of Wiltshire.-History:In 1835 Parliament approved the construction of a railway between London and Bristol. Its Chief Engineer was Isambard Kingdom Brunel.From 1836, Brunel had been buying...
. Meanwhile, the main building was completely re-roofed and reconstructed retaining only one of the two original 1954
turntablesA railway turntable is a device for turning railroad rolling stock. When steam locomotives were still in wide use, many railroads needed a way to turn the locomotives around for return trips as their controls were often not configured for extended periods of running in reverse and in many...
. It was reopened in 1992 as the Great Hall giving enhanced opportunities to display large artifacts such as railway signals, a footbridge and a segment from the
Channel TunnelThe Channel Tunnel is a undersea rail tunnel linking Folkestone, Kent in the United Kingdom with Coquelles, Pas-de-Calais near Calais in northern France beneath the English Channel at the Strait of Dover. At its lowest point, it is deep...
. The former goods shed display was retained as the Station Hall.
In 1995 the museum joined forces with the
University of YorkThe University of York , is an academic institution located in the city of York, England. Established in 1963, the campus university has expanded to more than thirty departments and centres, covering a wide range of subjects...
to create an academic research base, the Institute of Railway Studies (and Transport History). It has also since partnered with
York CollegeYork College is a further and higher education college in York, England. It offers A-levels, AVCE, HND and NVQ degrees. It is an associate college of the University of York...
to create the Yorkshire Rail Academy to teach vocational skills. The museum has also provided
engineering apprenticeAn engineering apprenticeship is an apprenticeship in mechanical engineering or electrical engineering. A typical example is the apprenticeships formerly available at the BTH and EEC at Rugby in England...
ships and participates in partnerships aimed at delivering heritage skills training.
In 1996 the Museum Garden was created incorporating a
gaugeTrack gauge or rail gauge is the distance between the inner sides of the heads of the two load bearing rails that make up a single railway line. Sixty percent of the world's railways use a standard gauge of . Wider gauges are called broad gauge; smaller gauges, narrow gauge. Break-of-gauge refers...
ridable miniature railwayA ridable miniature railway is a ground-level, large scale model railway that hauls passengers using locomotives that are models of full-sized railway locomotives .-Overview:Typically they have a rail track gauge between and , though both larger and...
. A playground was also added.
Continued concern over the condition of the remaining 1950s buildings on the site led to their replacement by
The Works in 1999. This gave several functional areas: the
Workshop, for maintenance of rolling stock; the
Workshop Gallery, from which the public can look down on this work; a
Working Railway Gallery, giving an insight into current and recent operation including a balcony overlooking
York railway stationYork railway station is a main-line railway station in the city of York, England. It lies on the East Coast Main Line north of London's King's Cross station towards Edinburgh's Waverley Station...
hosting a set of
monitorsA video monitor also called a broadcast monitor, broadcast reference monitor or just reference monitor, is a display device similar to a television set, used to monitor the output of a video-generating device, such as playout from a video server, IRD, video camera, VCR, or DVD player. It may or...
showing live feeds from the monitors at York
IECCThe Integrated Electronic Control Centre was developed in the late 1980s by the British Rail Research Division for UK-based railway signalling centres, although variations exist around the world...
; and the
Warehouse which provides an innovative open storage area, which has proved popular with both public and museum professionals.
Developments in the 21st century
In order to provide step-free access to the Workshop Gallery, the
Museum InclinatorThe National Railway Museum Inclinator was a short demonstration funicular railway located inside the National Railway Museum in the English city of York....
was constructed. Besides its primary function, this also served to demonstrate the workings of a funicular railway. To that end its workings are exposed in the style of a larger open air funicular railway, rather than being concealed in the fabric of the building as is more normal for intramural lifts. Unfortunately, due to lack of spare parts, it is no longer working, and there are no plans to repair it.
2004 saw several major developments at the museum. Several railway anniversaries were celebrated by a major "Railfest". Another took place from 25–30 May 2008 with a Sixties theme. The
LocomotionShildon Locomotion Museum is a railway museum in Shildon, County Durham, England. The museum is a branch of the National Railway Museum , which is part of the National Museum of Science and Industry...
museum was opened at
ShildonShildon is a town in County Durham, in England. It is situated 2 miles to the south east of Bishop Auckland and 11 miles north of Darlington. It is 13 miles away from Durham, 23 miles from Sunderland and 23 miles from Newcastle-upon-Tyne...
,
County DurhamCounty Durham is a ceremonial county and unitary district in north east England. The county town is Durham. The largest settlement in the ceremonial county is the town of Darlington...
providing undercover collection care facilities for more rail vehicles (particularly freight wagons) from the museum's collection. In addition, the museum had a high-profile campaign, supported by the
National Heritage Memorial FundThe National Heritage Memorial Fund is a non-departmental public body set up under the National Heritage Act 1980 in memory of people who gave their lives for the United Kingdom....
, to purchase
Flying ScotsmanThe LNER Class A3 Pacific locomotive No. 4472 Flying Scotsman was built in 1923 for the London and North Eastern Railway at Doncaster Works to a design of H.N. Gresley...
which arrived at the Museum as the climax of Railfest.
The first stage of a new centre providing easy access to the museum’s Library and Archives, called "Search Engine", opened at the end of 2007.
From 18 July to 23 August 2008, a popular new venture was the staging by
York Theatre RoyalThe York Theatre Royal is a theatre in St. Leonard's Place, York, England, which dates back to 1744. The theatre currently seats 847 people. This reduced capacity takes into account removal of the mixing position seats and the stage side boxes which are normally not sold...
at the Museum of the play of
E. NesbitEdith Nesbit was an English author and poet whose children's works were published under the name of E. Nesbit. She wrote or collaborated on over 60 books of fiction for children, several of which have been adapted for film and television...
's
The Railway ChildrenThe Railway Children is a children's book by Edith Nesbit, originally serialised in The London Magazine during 1905 and first published in book form in 1906...
, awarded five stars in
The GuardianThe Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
. Following this success, it was repeated in 2009, from 23 July to 3 September, and the museum provided locomotives for subsequent performances at
Waterloo International stationWaterloo International station was the London terminus of the Eurostar international rail service from its opening on 14 November 1994 until 13 November 2007. It stands on the western side of Waterloo railway station, London...
and in
TorontoToronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
.
Major plans under the name "NRM+" were made for refurbishing the Great Hall display, for which a preliminary
Heritage Lottery FundThe Heritage Lottery Fund is a fund established in the United Kingdom under the National Lottery etc. Act 1993. The Fund opened for applications in 1994. It uses money raised through the National Lottery to transform and sustain the UK’s heritage...
contribution was announced in 2009, and seeking potential partners for a further outhousing project. There are other partnerships for development of the museum estate and the land around it (much owned by Network Rail) as "York Central" but the economic situation during 2009 put these particular plans in abeyance. The NRM+ project was cancelled in April 2011 due to lack of success in assembling the funding package. However, major changes to the displays in the Station Hall began later in 2011.
Policies
Occasional criticisms of aspects of the museum, such as that it has devoted insufficient attention to modern traction; that it was neglecting scholarship in favour of commercialism; or that its photographic collections constitute a "black hole", do not always take into account the financial constraints under which the museum operates: its Grant in Aid from the
Department for Culture, Media and SportThe Department for Culture, Media and Sport is a department of the United Kingdom government, with responsibility for culture and sport in England, and some aspects of the media throughout the whole UK, such as broadcasting and internet....
amounts to £6.50 per visitor, which is used more cost-effectively but delivers much less overall income than for comparable London museums and it depends on money-making initiatives such as the
Yorkshire WheelYorkshire Wheel is the name used by two transportable Ferris wheel installations at different locations in York, England.The first installation was at the National Railway Museum, and operated from 12 April 2006 until 2 November 2008....
, which operated at the museum from 2006 to 2008, and visits from
Thomas the Tank EngineThomas the Tank Engine is a fictional steam locomotive in The Railway Series books by the Reverend Wilbert Awdry and his son, Christopher. He became the most popular character in the series, and the accompanying television spin-off series, Thomas and Friends.Thomas is a tank engine, painted blue...
as chronicled in
Thomas and the Great Railway Show. The museum has also suffered a few thefts of objects.
The museum can be allocated material from the railway industry by the Railway Heritage Committee. Because of the diversity of material falling potentially within the museum's collection policy and the problems of caring for it, decisions on acquisition of new items for the collection can be difficult. There has been a tradition within the museum of treating rolling stock as if it were still in railway service and unquestionably capable of undergoing heavy repairs and restoration, and many of the museum's locomotives have been operated in preservation on the main line,
heritage railwaythumb|right|the Historical [[Khyber train safari|Khyber Railway]] goes through the [[Khyber Pass]], [[Pakistan]]A heritage railway , preserved railway , tourist railway , or tourist railroad is a railway that is run as a tourist attraction, in some cases by volunteers, and...
s or at the museum. More recently, there have been moves to less interventionist forms of conservation in some cases.
Since 1977, the Friends of the National Railway Museum have been in existence as a group to give financial and other support to the museum, such as financing the restoration of
Duchess of Hamilton.
The 1990 "Great Railway Show" won the Museum of the Year award and in 2001 the museum gained the
European Museum of the Year AwardThe European Museum of the Year Award , established in 1977, is presented each year by the European Museum Forum , under the Council of Europe...
. It has also won White Rose awards from the Yorkshire Tourist Board, and in recognition of the several major developments in 2004 was given the
Heritage Railway AssociationThe Heritage Railways Association is an umbrella organisation representing the majority of the heritage and tourist railways, railway museums, steam centres and railway preservation groups in the UK and Ireland....
's Peter Manisty Award.
Online connections
The National Railway Museum has a working relationship in the form of a presence on the
National PreservationNational Preservation is the trading name for Nat Pres Ltd, a British-based online company that specialises in retail and discussion among railway enthusiasts. The company was created on 25 June 2008 as an extension of the original National Preservation forum, which began on 10 March 2005, and has...
forums. Members and Readers are able to talk and comment directly to members of the staff. Providing both feedback and constructive criticism, a valuable source of information for the museum.
Members of staff can usually answer questions when they are not busy and are part of the National Railway Museum group.
Locomotives
These are a few of the Museum's locomotives (listed by operational state, and then by date the design was introduced).
Operational steam locomotives
- GWR 3700 Class
The Great Western Railway 3700 Class, or City Class, locomotives were a series of twenty 4-4-0 steam locomotives, designed for hauling express passenger trains.-Construction:...
4-4-0 No. 3440 City of Truro. In service and usually on loan to other railways; when it is not touring it is seen at York. Boiler certification expires in 2014.
- LNWR G Class
The London and North Western Railway G Class along with modifications that made them into G1, G2 and G2a classes, is a class of 0-8-0 steam locomotives designed for heavy freight work. They are known to railway enthusiasts as "Super Ds". This is because a large number of G1 class engines were...
("Super D") 0-8-0 No. 49395. In service and usually on loan to other railways; when it is not touring it is stabled either at York or Crewe. Presently based on the North Yorkshire Moors RailwayThe North Yorkshire Moors Railway is a heritage railway in North Yorkshire, England. First opened in 1836 as the Whitby and Pickering Railway, the railway was planned in 1831 by George Stephenson as a means of opening up trade routes inland from the then important seaport of Whitby. The line...
. Boiler certification expires in 2015.
- Great Central Railway
The Great Central Railway was a railway company in England which came into being when the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway changed its name in 1897 in anticipation of the opening in 1899 of its London Extension . On 1 January 1923, it was grouped into the London and North Eastern...
O4 ClassThe London and North Eastern Railway Class O4 initially consisted of the 131 ex-Great Central Railway Class 8K 2-8-0 steam locomotives acquired on grouping in 1923. The engines were designed by John G...
2-8-0 No. 63601. Currently working on the Great Central Railway. Boiler certification expires in 2012.
- SR N15 Class
The LSWR N15 class was a British 2–cylinder 4-6-0 express passenger steam locomotive designed by Robert W. Urie. The class has a complex build history spanning three sub-classes and eight years of construction from 1919 to 1926...
4-6-0 No. 30777 Sir Lamiel Southern Railway 777 Sir Lamiel is an N15 “King Arthur” class 4-6-0 steam locomotive built for the Southern Railway by the North British Locomotive Company in June 1925, and withdrawn from service in October 1961. It is now preserved and used on the Network Rail infrastructure in association with...
. Currently kept at the Great Central RailwayThe Great Central Railway is a heritage railway split into two adjacent sections, one in Leicestershire and the other Nottinghamshire.The Leicestershire section is currently Britain's only double track mainline heritage railway, with of working double track, period signalling, locomotives and...
where it is operational and works on the national network. Boiler certification expires in 2016.
- SR Lord Nelson Class
The SR class LN or Lord Nelson class is a type of 4-cylinder 4-6-0 steam locomotive designed for the Southern Railway by Richard Maunsell in 1926. They were intended for Continental boat trains between London and Dover harbour, but were also later used for express passenger work to the South-West...
4-6-0 No. 850 Lord Nelson. Currently working on the Mid Hants Railway. Boiler certification expires in 2016.
- British Railways Standard Class 7 "Britannia"
The BR Standard Class 7, otherwise known as the Britannia Class, is a class of 4-6-2 Pacific steam locomotive designed by Robert Riddles for use by British Railways for mixed traffic duties. Fifty-five were constructed between 1951 and 1954. The design was a result of the 1948 locomotive exchanges...
4-6-2 No. 70013 Oliver Cromwell70013 Oliver Cromwell is a British Railways standard class 7 preserved steam locomotive. The locomotive is notable as one of the four steam locomotives which worked the last steam railtour on British Railways in 1968 before the introduction of a steam ban.-Career:One of 55 of the "Britannia"...
. Currently based on the Great Central Railway but frequently operates on the mainline.
Steam locomotives under overhaul
- LNER Class A1/A3
The London and North Eastern Railway LNER Gresley Classes A1 and A3 locomotives represented two distinct stages in the history of the British 4-6-2 "Pacific" steam locomotives designed by Nigel Gresley...
4-6-2 No. 4472 Flying ScotsmanThe LNER Class A3 Pacific locomotive No. 4472 Flying Scotsman was built in 1923 for the London and North Eastern Railway at Doncaster Works to a design of H.N. Gresley...
. Having undergone a major overhaul largely in the NRM workshops, late discovery of problems was expected to delay return to mainline service in LNER Apple Green livery until late spring 2012.
Steam locomotives on static display
- Stephenson's Rocket
Stephenson's Rocket was an early steam locomotive of 0-2-2 wheel arrangement, built in Newcastle Upon Tyne at the Forth Street Works of Robert Stephenson and Company in 1829.- Design innovations :...
0-2-2 Rocket. Two replicas are in the York collection, one built for operation (rebuilt 2009-10) and one sectioned. (The original is with the parent body, the Science Museum in London.)
- NER No. 66 Aerolite
North Eastern Railway No. 66 Aerolite is a preserved British steam locomotive. It was classified X1 by the LNER.Aerolite was built in 1869 as a replacement for an engine of the same name built by Kitson's for the Great Exhibition in 1851 and which was destroyed in a collision in 1868...
. On static display in York since 1934.
- GWR 6000 Class
The Great Western Railway 6000 Class or King is a class of 4-6-0 steam locomotive designed for express passenger work. With the exception of one Pacific , they were the largest locomotives the GWR built. They were named after kings of the United Kingdom and of England, beginning with the reigning...
4-6-0 No. 6000 King George Vthumb|right|6000 King George V at Swindon having just hauled the last King-hauled train from Wolverhampton and Birmingham Snow Hill . Note the bell which was given to the engine when it toured the U.S...
. Moved to York in September 2008 after changing places with No. 92220 Evening StarBritish Railways Standard Class 9F number 92220 Evening Star, is a preserved British steam locomotive completed in 1960. It was the last steam locomotive to be built by British Railways. It holds the distinction of being the only British main line steam locomotive ear-marked for preservation from...
.
- LMS Stanier Class 5 4-6-0
The London Midland and Scottish Railway's Class 5 4-6-0, almost universally known as the Black Five, is a class of steam locomotive. It was introduced by William Stanier in 1934 and 842 were built between then and 1951...
No. 5000LMS Stanier Class 5 4-6-0 number 5000 is a preserved British steam locomotive. It is part of the National Railway Collection.- Service :5000 was built at Crewe in 1935 and was initially the first numerically of its class. It however was not the first to be built because the Vulcan Foundry had...
. On static display.
- LNER Class V2
The London and North Eastern Railway Class V2 2-6-2 steam locomotives were designed by Sir Nigel Gresley for express mixed traffic work, and built between 1936–1944. The best known is the first of the class, 4771 Green Arrow, which is the only preserved example.-Construction:The V2s were the only...
2-6-2 No. 4771/60800 Green ArrowThe LNER Class V2 2-6-2 steam locomotive, number 4771 Green Arrow was built in June 1936 for the London and North Eastern Railway at Doncaster Works to a design of Nigel Gresley. The first-built and only surviving member of its class, it was designed for hauling express freight and passenger...
. After many years of being a popular operation engine, her boiler certificate was due to expire Spring 2008, but failed beforehand on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway. In need of extensive repairs to her one-piece three cylinder block, she is unlikely to steam again due to cost and NRM policy. Returned to York after a two year loan to Locomotion at Shildon.
- LMS Princess Coronation Class
The London Midland and Scottish Railway Coronation Class is a class of express passenger steam locomotives designed by William Stanier. They were an enlarged version of the LMS Princess Royal Class. Several examples were originally built as streamlined, though this was later removed...
4-6-2 No. 6229 Duchess of HamiltonLondon Midland and Scottish Railway Princess Coronation Class 6229 Duchess of Hamilton is a preserved steam locomotive.- Service :...
. Recently returned to the NRM after being re-streamlined. It is displayed in the exhibit, Streamlined: Styling an era. There are plans to return the locomotive to steam in the near future.
- LNER Class A4
The Class A4 is a class of streamlined 4-6-2 steam locomotive, designed by Nigel Gresley for the London and North Eastern Railway in 1935. Their streamlined design gave them high-speed capability as well as making them instantly recognizable, and one of the class, 4468 Mallard, still claims the...
4-6-2 No. 4468 MallardNumber 4468 Mallard is a London and North Eastern Railway Class A4 4-6-2 Pacific steam locomotive built at Doncaster, England in 1938. While in other respects a relatively typical member of its class, it is historically significant for being the holder of the official world speed record for steam...
. Restored to steam for a time from 1986; now on static display. Unlikely to run again due to exhibit popularity and the fact that all the other A4s in the UK have been restored to working order.
- SR Class Q1
The SR Q1 class is a type of austerity steam locomotive constructed during the Second World War. The class was designed by Oliver Bulleid for use on the intensive freight turns experienced during wartime on the Southern Railway network. A total of 40 locomotives were built. Bulleid...
0-6-0 No. C1. On static display. However it is possible it will return to the Bluebell RailwayThe Bluebell Railway is a heritage line running for nine miles along the border between East and West Sussex, England. Steam trains are operated between and , with an intermediate station at .The railway is managed and run largely by volunteers...
, where it was based for many years, to be returned to service.
- BR standard class 9F
The British Railways BR Standard Class 9F 2-10-0 is a class of steam locomotive designed for British Railways by Robert Riddles. The Class 9F was the last in a series of standardised locomotive classes designed for British Railways during the 1950s, and was intended for use on fast, heavy freight...
2-10-0 No. 92220 Evening StarBritish Railways Standard Class 9F number 92220 Evening Star, is a preserved British steam locomotive completed in 1960. It was the last steam locomotive to be built by British Railways. It holds the distinction of being the only British main line steam locomotive ear-marked for preservation from...
, the last steam locomotive built for British RailBritish Railways , which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was the operator of most of the rail transport in Great Britain between 1948 and 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the "Big Four" British railway companies and lasted until the gradual privatisation of British Rail, in stages...
ways. On static display and not expected to return to working order. Recently returned to York after a two year loan to Steam - Museum of the GWR, SwindonSTEAM – Museum of the Great Western Railway, also known as Swindon Steam Railway Museum, is located at the site of the old railway works in Swindon, England – Wiltshire's 'railway town'...
.
Steam locomotives located away from York
- GWR 4000 Class
A Star class locomotive was a particular type of steam locomotive of the Great Western Railway. The prototype was an experimental locomotive, North Star , constructed with the 'Atlantic' 4-4-2 wheel arrangement for comparative trials with 4-cylinder compound locomotives of the de Glehn type that...
4-6-0 No. 4003 Lode StarLode Star is the only remaining GWR 4000 Class locomotive. It is preserved at the National Railway Museum, York, UK.Lode Star was designed by George Jackson Churchward and was built in 1907, one of the first locomotives in its class to be built....
. Recently taken to STEAM - Museum of the GWR, Swindon where she swapped places with Evening Star.
- SR Schools class 4-4-0 No. 925 Cheltenham. Recently taken to Eastleigh Works
Eastleigh Works is a locomotive, carriage and wagon building and repair facility in the town of Eastleigh in the county of Hampshire in England.-History under the LSWR:...
for asbestos removal. She will then move to the Watercress LineThe Watercress Line is the marketing name of the Mid-Hants Railway, a heritage railway in Hampshire, England, running from New Alresford to Alton where it connects to the National Rail network. The line gained its popular name in the days that it was used to transport locally grown watercress to...
where she will be restored to working order.
- Robert Stephenson and Hawthorns
Robert Stephenson and Hawthorns Ltd was a locomotive builder with works in North East England.-History:The company was formed in September 1937 when Robert Stephenson and Company, which was based in Darlington took over the locomotive building department of Hawthorn Leslie and Company, based in...
0-4-0ST No. 15 Eustace Forth. Outstationed at Locomotion, Shildon to help maintain a working locomotive presence there.
Heads of museum
| Head |
Served |
| Dr John A. Coiley |
1974–1992 |
| Andrew Dow |
1992–1994 |
| Andrew J. Scott CBE |
1994–2009 |
| Steve Davies MBE |
2010– |
External links