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The 'National Railway Museum' (NRM) is a museum in York forming part of the British National Museum of Science and Industry and telling the story of rail transport in Britain and its impact on society.

Contents

Overview

Gallery

Collection

Origins

Growth

Policies

Developments

Locomotives

Heads of museum

References

Further reading

See also

External Links

Overview

The NRM contains a collection of over 100 locomotives and nearly 200 other items of rolling stock, virtually all of which either ran on the railways of Great Britain or were built there, together with many hundreds of thousands of other items of social, technical and historical interest (down to a lock of Robert Stephenson's hair) displayed in three large halls of a former motive power depot next to the East Coast Main Line, near York railway station.
It is the largest museum of its type in the world with over 744,000 visitors a year.^[1]
The NRM was established on its present site in 1975, when it took over the former British Railways collection located in Clapham and the York Railway Museum located elsewhere in the city; since then, the collection has continued to grow. The head of the museum since 1994 has been Andrew Scott.

A panorama of locomotives arranged around the turntable in the Great Hall.

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 Minster) to the museum on Leeman Road. Admission to the museum has been free for a number of years. It is open daily from 10am to 6pm.

Locomotion – the National Railway Museum in Shildon, County Durham was opened in 2004 and is operated by the NRM in conjunction with Sedgefield Borough Council. It houses more of the national collection in a new building and a historic site around the former workshop of Timothy Hackworth and attracts a further 100,000 visitors annually.

Gallery

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 Locomotion at Shildon and other museums and heritage railways. The earliest are wagonway vehicles of about 1815. The permanent display includes "Palaces on Wheels", a collection of Royal Train saloons from Queen Victoria's early trains through to those used by Queen Elizabeth II up to the 1970s, among them some of the first rail vehicles to be set aside for preservation.^[2][3][4] Other key exhibits normally to be seen at York include the 1846 Furness Railway No. 3 "Coppernob" locomotive, and the more modern express passenger steam locomotives London and North Eastern Railway Class A3 No. 4472 ''Flying Scotsman'' (added to the collection only in 2004),^[5] its streamlined sister Class A4 No. 4468 ''Mallard'' and London, Midland and Scottish Railway Princess Coronation Class No. 6229 ''Duchess of Hamilton''.^[6] ''Flying Scotsman'' is among the exhibits intended for operation on the National Rail network from time to time.

The museum has imported several major vehicles for display: the Chinese Class KF locomotive donated in 1981 was built in Britain and the ''Wagon-Lits'' sleeping car donated in 1980 had been used on the Paris-London ''Night Ferry'' service. The single exception to the rule of exhibits associated with Britain is the Japanese 0 Series Shinkansen ''bullet train'' leading vehicle which was donated to the museum by the West Japan Railway Company in 2001 and which now forms part of an award-winning display.
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 Railway Gaunless Bridge and several stationary winding engines used on railway inclines.
The many other three-dimensional elements of the collection include signalling equipment, road vehicles, ship models, posters and other artwork,^[7] nameplates, staff uniforms, furniture and equipment from railway hotels, refreshment rooms and offices (including company seals) and a wide range of models, some of which are operated on the museum's O scale model railway (originated in 1982).^[8]
The museum is also the repository for a large collection of mechanical 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 Treacy and H. Gordon Tidey.^{[9][10][11][12]} The museum’s own photographers have also worked on projects recording the contemporary railway, including the Channel Tunnel construction. In 1999/2000 the Museum began to collect recordings of former railway staff for a 'National Archive of Railway Oral History'. The museum library houses a significant collection of railway periodicals,^[13] timetables and official publications.

Origins

Although there had been amateur attempts to establish a national railway museum from the late 19th century^[14] the official impetus came from two sources. The first was the establishment of what became the Science Museum (London) collection by the Patent Office;^[15] this included the locomotive ''Agenoria'' (sister to ''Stourbridge Lion'') which was outhoused to York at an early date. The other strand derived from the North Eastern Railway as successors to the historic Stockton and Darlington Railway. From 1880, J. B. Harper of the N.E.R. had been collecting material much of which was exhibited on the occasion of the S.& D.R. centenary in 1925;^[16] and which then formed the basis of a museum opened at York by the London and North Eastern Railway in 1928 under the curatorship of E. M. Bywell. The smaller exhibits (including the donated Isaac Briggs collection of memorabilia relating to early railway civil engineers) were housed in the old station buildings and the rolling stock and other large exhibits in former workshops.^[17][18] These were supplemented by material from other railway companies, for example London, Brighton and South Coast Railway B1 Class ''Gladstone'', donated by the Stephenson Locomotive Society and ''City of Truro'' from the Great Western Railway,^[19] but other relics were retained in company workshops and offices and some were destroyed.^[20]

The nationalisation 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.^[21] 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 station (done on a temporary basis) and a large museum of collections elsewhere in London. For the latter, the former station at Nine Elms was originally favoured as a site, but what was eventually opened in 1961 was the 'Museum of British Transport' in a former bus garage in Clapham.^[22][23] An official list of locomotives for preservation was compiled,^[24][25][26] of which many were stored in sheds and works throughout the country.
The modernisation of British Rail by the end of the 1960s made it seem inappropriate for it to be running a museum, and a campaign was led by transport historian L. T. C. Rolt and others to create a new museum.^[27] Agreement was reached under terms in the Transport Act 1968 for B.R. to provide premises converted from the former locomotive roundhouse at York North (rebuilt in the 1950s) to be occupied by a National Railway Museum which would be a branch of the National Museum of Science and Industry and the first English national museum outside London (some items were retained in the capital and formed the basis of the London Transport Museum). Exhibits from the previous museums at York and Clapham were moved to the new site supplemented by vehicles taken from storage in Brighton and elsewhere and restored. Creation of the York museum was largely in the hands of its first keeper, Dr John Coiley,^[28] his deputy Peter Semmens,^[29] John van Riemsdijk of the Science Museum and David Jenkinson.^[30]

Growth

The museum was opened by Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh 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 cars and non-steam motive power was enhanced, but a popular new exhibit was Southern Region of British Railways Merchant Navy Class No. 35029 ''Ellerman Lines'' sectioned 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.^[31][32]
Significant events of 1979 were the restoration of a train of appropriate vehicles to mark the centenary of on-train catering^[33][34] and an exhibition to mark the centenary of railway electric traction which drew attention to the museum's important collections in this area.^[35] Also in 1979 the museum commissioned a working replica of Stephenson's Rocket for the following year’s Liverpool and Manchester Railway 150th anniversary.^[36] This has since represented the museum at events around the world.
Another working replica was added to the collection for the Great Western Railway sesquicentenary in 1985: that of the 7 ft 0¼ in (2140 mm) gauge ''Iron Duke''.
Concerns about the condition of the concrete 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'.^[37] A further selection of exhibits formed the 'National Railway Museum on Tour' on display for a season in the former Swindon Works.^[38] (The Museum at Swindon still displays a large number of items which are the property of the NRM.) Meanwhile, the main building was completely reroofed and reconstructed retaining only one of the two original 1954 turntables. It was reopened in 1992 as the 'Great Hall' giving enhanced opportunities to display large artefacts such as railway signals,

a footbridge and a Channel Tunnel segment. The former goods shed display was retained as the 'Station Hall'.
In 1995 the museum joined forces with the University of York to create an academic research base, the 'Institute of Railway Studies' ('and Transport History'). It has also since partnered with York College to create the 'Yorkshire Rail Academy' to teach vocational skills. The museum has also provided engineering apprenticeships and participates in partnerships aimed at delivering heritage skills training.^[39]
In 1996 the 'Museum Garden' was created incorporating a 7¼ in (184 mm) gauge ridable miniature railway.
Continued concern over the condition of the remaining 1950s building 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 station hosting a set of monitors showing live feeds from the monitors at York IECC; and the 'Warehouse' which provides an innovative open storage area which has proved popular with both public and museum professionals.^[40]
2004 saw several major developments at the museum. Several railway anniversaries were celebrated by a major 'Railfest'^[41][42] (another is projected for 2008). The Locomotion museum was opened at Shildon, County Durham providing undercover collection care facilities for more rail vehicles (particularly freight cars) from the museum's collection. In addition, the museum had a high-profile campaign, supported by the National Heritage Memorial Fund, to purchase ''Flying Scotsman''.^[43] which arrived at the Museum as the climax of Railfest.

Policies

Occasional criticisms of aspects of the museum, such as that it has devoted insufficient attention to modern traction;^[44][45] that it was neglecting scholarship in favour of commercialism;^[46] or that its photographic collections constitute a "black hole"¹² 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 Sport 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 Wheel' set up within the museum in 2006^[47] and visits from Thomas the Tank Engine as chronicled in ''Thomas and the Great Railway Show''. The museum has also suffered a few thefts of objects.^[48]
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.^[49][50] 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 railways or at the museum.^[51][52] More recently, there have been moves to less interventionist forms of conservation in some cases.^[53]
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 Award. It has also won White Rose awards from the Yorkshire Tourist Board.

Developments

A new centre providing easy access to the museum’s Library and Archives, to be called 'Search Engine', has a hoped-for opening date of late 2007, major plans under the name 'NRM+' are under way for refurbishing the Great Hall display, and there are other partnerships for development of the museum estate as 'York Central'.^[54]

Locomotives

These are a few of the Museum's steam locomotives (by date the design was introduced).

★ Stephenson's Rocket 0-2-2 ''Rocket''. Two replicas are in the York collection, one built for operation and one sectioned. (The original is with the parent body, the Science Museum in London.)

★ NER No. 66 ''Aerolite''. On static display in York since 1934.

★ GWR 3700 Class 4-4-0 No. 3440 ''City of Truro''. In service and usually on loan to other railways or on the mainline; when it is not touring it is seen at York. Boiler ticket expires in 2014.

★ GWR 4000 Class 4-6-0 No. 4003 ''Lode Star''. On static display.

★ LNWR G Class ("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. Boiler ticket expires in 2015.

★ LNER Class A1/A3 4-6-2 No. 4472 ''Flying Scotsman''. Undergoing a major overhaul in the NRM workshops, expected to be completed by 2009.

★ LSWR N15 Class 4-6-0 No. 30777 ''Sir Lamiel''. Currently kept at the Great Central Railway where it is operational and sometimes comes to be serviced at York to work the Scarborough Spa Expresses. Boiler ticket expires in 2016.

★ SR Lord Nelson Class 4-6-0 No. 850 ''Lord Nelson''. Currently in mainline service and is sometimes serviced at York so it can operate the Scarborough Spa Express. Boiler ticket expires in 2016.

★ LMS Stanier Class 5 4-6-0 No. 5000. On static display.

★ LNER Class V2 2-6-2 No. 4771/60800 ''Green Arrow''. Operational and usually on loan to other railways; has recently been taken off the main line. When not touring it is kept at York. Boiler ticket expires in early 2008.

★ LNER Class A4 4-6-2 No. 4468 ''Mallard''. Restored to steam for a time from 1986; now on static display and not expected to run again.

★ LMS Princess Coronation Class 4-6-2 No. 6229 ''Duchess of Hamilton''. Restored to steam for the first time in 1980 as London Midland Region of British Railways No. 46229. Currently at Birmingham Railway Museum being returned to its streamlined form; could eventually be restored to working order.

★ SR Class Q1 0-6-0 No. C1. On static display.

★ Robert Stephenson and Hawthorns 0-4-0ST No. 15 ''Eustace Forth''. Currently outstationed at Locomotion, Shildon to help maintain a working locomotive presence there; planned to return in 2007.

★ BR standard class 9F 2-10-0 No. 92220 ''Evening Star'', the last steam locomotive built for British Railways. On static display and not expected to return to working order.
This list is incomplete.

Heads of museum

Head	Served
Dr John A. Coiley	1974 - 1992
Andrew Dow	1992 - 1994
Andrew Scott CBE	1994 - present

References

1. NRM Annual Reviews
2. Stately Progress: Royal Train Travel since 1840, Kumar, Amba, , , National Railway Museum, 1997,
3. Palaces on Wheels: Royal Carriages at the National Railway Museum, Jenkinson, David, , , H.M.S.O, 1981,
4. Royal Journey, Ellis, C. Hamilton, , , British Transport Commission, ,
5. ''Flying Scotsman'': the people’s engine, Hughes, Geoffrey, , , Friends of the National Railway Museum Enterprises, 2004,
6. 46229 Duchess of Hamilton, Blakemore, Michael and Rutherford, Michael, , , Newburn House, 1984,
7. Oil paintings in public ownership in North Yorkshire, Roe, Sonia (ed.), , , Public Catalogue Foundation, 2006,
8. Treasure in Reserve, , , , Railway Magazine,
9. Railways in Focus: photographs from the National Railway Museum collection, Bartholomew, Ed & Blakemore, Michael, , , Atlantic, ,
10. Great Railway Photographers: Maurice Earley, Garratt, Colin (ed.), , , Milepost, 1996,
11. Great Railway Photographers: E. R. Weathersett, Garratt, Colin (ed.), , , Milepost, 1996,
12. The National Railway Museum Photographic Archive, Harris, Nigel, , , Steam World,
13. National Railway Museum Library Serials Collection, , , , , ,
14. The Miniature World of Henry Greenly, Steel, Ernest A. and Elenora H., , , Model & Allied Publications, 1973,
15. Early Railways 2, Liffen, John, , , Newcomen Society, 2003,
16. Catalogue of the Collection of Railway Relics and Modern Stock at Faverdale, Darlington, London & North Eastern Railway, , , L.N.E.R, 1925,
17. The Railway Museum, London & North Eastern Ry., York, Household, H. G. W., , , Locomotive,
18. Britain’s Rail Super Centres – York, Appleby, Ken, , , Ian Allan, 1993,
19. City of Truro, a locomotive legend, Harris, Nigel (ed.), , , Silver Link Publishing, 1985,
20. Lost preserved railway rolling stock, Barker, R., , , Transport History,
21. The Preservation of Relics and Records: report to the British Transport Commission, , , , British Transport Commission, 1951,
22. Transport Treasures, Rolt, L. T. C., , , British Transport Commission, 1962,
23. Popular Carriage, Ellis, C. Hamilton, , , British Transport Commission, ,
24. The Consultative Panel and the transport museums, Skeat, W. O., , , Journal of the Stephenson Locomotive Society,
25. Historical Steam Locomotives, Nock, O. S., , , A. & C. Black, 1959,
26. Steam Locomotive, Nock, O. S., , , British Transport Commission, ,
27. Landscape with figures, Rolt, L. T. C., , , Alan Sutton, 1992,
28. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Divall, Colin, , , Oxford University Press, ,
29. Peter Semmens
30. David Jenkinson, van Riemsdijk, John, , , Backtrack,
31. The National Railway Museum, York, Cossons, Neil, , , Museums Journal,
32. Dandy-Cart to Diesel: the National Railway Museum, Simmons, Jack, , , H.M.S.O, 1981,
33. Centenary Express: a guide to the National Railway Museum Catering Centenary Train, , , , H.M.S.O, 1979,
34. The National Railway Museum Catering Centenary Train, Jenkinson, David, , , Yesteryear Transport,
35. The electric traction exhibits of the National Collection, Gibbon, R. H., , , Friends of the National Railway Museum Newsletter,
36. Rocket reborn, Satow, M. G., , , Railway Magazine,
37. Great Railway Show at the National Railway Museum, York: souvenir booklet, Blakemore, Michael, , , National Museum of Science & Industry, 1990,
38. National Railway Museum on Tour – Swindon, 1990, Heap, Christine (ed.), , , National Museum of Science & Industry, 1990,
39. Teaching old dogs new tricks... and new dogs old tricks?, Ashby, Helen, , , National Railway Museum Review,
40. 3D, Wright, David, , , National Railway Museum Review,
41. Railfest: official souvenir programme, , , , Steam Railway, 2004,
42. Celebrating Rail: the story of Railfest, Gwynne, Bob, , , Nostalgia Road, 2005,
43. How we saved the ''Flying Scotsman'', Scott, Andrew, , , Railway Magazine,
44. The NRM on the spot, Dunn, Pip, , , Railways Illustrated,
45. Bring them in from the cold!, Smith, Ian R., , , Heritage Railway,
46. Quo vadis, NRM?, Jenkinson, David, , , Backtrack,
47. NRM is ‘poor relation’ of Britain’s state museums, Courtney, Geoff, , , Heritage Railway,
48. Four more thefts from NRM, Courtney, Geoff, , , Heritage Railway,
49. Common Roots – Separate Branches: railway history and preservation, Heap, Christine J., , , Science Museum, 1994,
50. Electric Multiple Units in the National Collection, Ashby, Helen, Bartholomew, Ed and Rees, Jim, , , National Railway Museum Review,
51. Steam Alive: locomotives of the National Railway Collection in steam, Smith, Ian R., , , FNRM, 1993,
52. Great British Locomotives: National Railway Museum locomotives in action, Blakemore, Michael and Mosley, David, , , Ian Allan, 1997,
53. Common Roots – Separate Branches: railway history and preservation, Hopkin, Dieter, , , Science Museum, 1994,
54. NRM website

Further reading

★ Rocket to Eurostar: the National Railway Museum in camera, Coiley, John (comp.), , , Atlantic, ,

★ Perspectives on Railway History and Interpretation, Cossons, Neil ''et al.'' (ed.), , , National Railway Museum, ,

★ The National Railway Collection, Jenkinson, D. (ed.), , , Collins, ,

★ Railways for posterity, Mullay, A. J., , , Backtrack,

★ NRM 25, , , , Railway Magazine,

★ Changing the face of the National Railway Museum, Richards, Stephen, , , Steam Railway,

★ The World’s Largest Railway Museum: official guidebook, Whitehouse, Alan, , , NMSI Trading, ,

See also

★ List of British railway museums

External Links

★ NRM website

★ NRM events website

★ The official National Railway Museum print website containing many vintage posters and prints from the museum's collections

★

★ Photo essay on museum's displays

★ Photos of Steam Locos in York

★ Railway Heritage Register On-Line