National Railway Museum

The National Railway Museum (NRM ) in York is part of the British National Museum of Science and Industry and a museum dedicated to the historical aspects of the railway sector - in particular that of the UK. Since railway technology was developed in the UK, his collection has a meaning far beyond the UK. The NRM is the museum with the highest number of visitors in the UK outside of London.

The Museum

Prehistory

Since the late 19th century, there were in the UK approaches to create a national railway museum. A first step in this direction was the Science Museum in London, in whose collection also railway technology was first recorded. Another strand of development is on the North Eastern Railway, successor of the Stockton and Darlington Railway, back. There was material collected since about 1880, which could then be presented to the 100th anniversary of the Stockton & Darlington Railway in 1925. Then it became the basis of a first Railway Museum in York, since 1928, operated by the London and North Eastern Railway. This material other railway companies has also been collected.

The nationalization of the railways in Great Britain 1948, the first time allowed a systematic gathering of Sammelnswertem and the National Transport Commission recommended in 1951 a National Railway Museum in York and regional railway museums set up - this one about the Swindon Steam Railway Museum in Swindon. This resulted in 1961, the Museum of British Transport in a former bus depot in Clapham. Also, an official list of locomotives was created that could be preserved in museums.

In the concept of modernization of British Rail at the end of the 1960s it no longer fit, to freight the web with the sponsorship of a museum. However, the interested public demanded the preservation of the museum. Thus, the Transport Act 1968 for British Rail (Law on the Restructuring of the British railway) spoke to the National Railway Museum in York to a roundhouse, where the museum should be operated from the National Museum of Science and Industry. The National Railway Museum was the first national museum in the UK outside of London. Here are the railroad exhibits have been merged from different collections scattered across the country and depots.

The National Museum

1975 - the 150th anniversary of the Stockton & Darlington Railway - Prince Consort Philip opened the new National Museum. In the first year after its opening, the museum had more than one million visitors. The exhibition is located on an area of ​​8 hectares, mainly in three large halls and an outdoor exhibition area. It is a former railway depot of the East Coast Main Line, near the York Central Terminal. Since then, the collection has continued to grow.

1979 procured a traveling replica of the locomotive Rocket capable of George Stephenson for the following year upcoming 150th anniversary of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway Museum. This machine has now represented the museum on many occasions around the world.

1990 was an adjacent goods shed are included in the exhibition area, which allows vehicles to platforms - to show - as in a train station.

1995 has been set up jointly with the University of York Institute of Railway Studies and Transport History. In 1996 the open space of the museum, a garden railway with a gauge of 7 ¼ inches ( 184 mm).

Since 2004, the museum maintains a branch office in Shildon, County Durham, under the name of Locomotion. There, a portion of the collection is housed in a new building and the historic steam locomotive factory of Timothy Hackworth.

The NRM is the largest railway museum in the world and has more visitors than any other museum in the UK outside of London: 744,000 visitors ( 2006). The field office in Shildon counts again 100,000 visitors per year.

The Collection

The NRM shows in his collection over 100 locomotives and nearly 200 other railway vehicles British provenance. The oldest date from the period around 1815. Around a hundred vehicles are shown in York, the other in Shildon or are loaned out to other railway museums. Further, many hundreds of thousands are other items in the collection, showing the social, technical, artistic, and historical aspects of the railway.

The permanent exhibition contains a number of saloon cars of the British royal family are shown, the oldest dating from Queen Adelaide ( 1792-1849 ). Next are represented saloon car of Queen Victoria (1837-1901), King Edward VII (1901-1911), King George V (1911-1937) and Queen Elizabeth II ( since 1952).

Other outstanding exhibits are:

  • Furness Railway steam locomotive no. 3 - coppernob of 1846.
  • Class A3 locomotive No. 4472 of the Flying Scotsman - in the collection since 2004.
  • Their streamlined fairing and sister locomotive LNER Class A4 4468 Mallard - World Record locomotive (126 mph ).
  • The locomotive of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway LMS Princess Coronation Class 6229 Duchess of Hamilton.

As exhibits draw near: signaling, signage, uniforms, office equipment, road vehicles of the train, models, art, dealing with the web, and a model train in track O. This is supplemented and an extensive archive, in the posters, technical drawings photographs are kept.

Exhibits with international aspects are a locomotive of the KF class of the Chinese state railway, which was built in Britain and donated to the museum in 1981 by the People's Republic of China, and a sleeping car of the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons- Lits, which in conjunction Night Ferry between London and Paris was used.

The only exhibit without reference to the UK is a Japanese bullet train Shinkansen Series 0 - the only Shinkansen, which can be seen outside of Japan.

In the permanent collection of exhibits to be replaced every now and then. In addition, from time to time exhibitions of modern vehicles, which presents the railway industry here. Also exhibits are loaned to other museums occasionally.

Opening times

The museum is open daily from 10-18 clock, admission is free. The Museum receives £ 6.50 per visitor from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

Find out more

  • Since 1977, the Association of Friends of the National Railway Museum exists ( Friends of the National Railway Museum ), which support the museum financially. She has funded, for example, the restoration of the steam locomotive Duchess of Hamilton.
  • Opened in 1990, part of the exhibition The Great Railway show brought to the museum in 2001 to recognize a European Museum of the Year.
  • Since 2009, the then six- year-old Sam Pointon from Leicester honored position of " director of fun" of the museum holds and makes sure to keep the museum family-and child -friendly.
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