One of the leading attractions in York, the National Railway Museum showcases the history of rail transport in Britain and its impact on society. Founded in 1975, the museum is housed in the former York North locomotive depot alongside the East Coast Main Line and near York Station. Part of the UK's Science Museum Group, the National Railway Museum's collection includes over 6,000 artefacts, from locomotives and rolling stock to signalling equipment, models, artwork, road vehicles, signage, and items from railway stations. Around 100 of the approximately 280 historically-important locomotives and rolling stock comprising the National Collection are on display in the museum at any given time. Admission to the museum has been free since 2001.
During this visit in April 2024 the museum's Station Hall building, built in 1875-77 and housing the collection of Royal Train carriages, was closed for repairs to be completed later in the year.
Photos taken 23 April 2024
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The entrance to the National Railway Museum on Leeman Road in York, just northwest of York Railway Station. |
Below: The guide map available to visitors to the National Railway Museum.
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A set of wrought iron gates dating from 1837 and formerly installed on the neo-classical stone arch in front of Euston Station in London. The arch measured 23 metres (72 feet) in height and was intended to convey to passengers a sense of the power and success of the London and Birmingham Railway, the owner of Euston Station. British Railways demolished the Euston Station arch in 1961 to make way for the new station. The demolition of Euston's arch and its 1849-built Great Hall was condemned by the public and led to a reevaluation of the merits of Victorian architecture. This public attention resulted in other stations, such as London's St Pancras, being saved from Euston Station's fate. |
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This plaque was installed at London's Euston Station in 1849 to commemorate the opening of the station's Great Hall that year. The neo-classical Great Hall was the largest station waiting room in Britain, with its booking hall alone being as large as the original station. In addition to providing ample space for passengers to circulate through the station, the Great Hall served to demonstrate the prosperity of the railway company. In 1962, the Great Hall was torn down as part of British Railways' redevelopment of Euston Station. |
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A statue of pioneering railway engineer George Stephenson (1781-1848), crafted in 1852 by Edward Hodges Baily. Stephenson is considered to be the father of the railways for both his engineering work and involvement in early railway lines, such as the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. Illiterate until the age of 18, Stephenson educated himself via night school courses and used his engineering skills to amass a fortune. The statue was commissioned and completed after Stephenson's death, being funded by members of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and friends and admirers of Stephenson. It once stood in the Great Hall at Euston Station in London. |
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This commemorative bronze plaque was gifted by the Italian delegation of the International Railway Congress to the Stockton and Darlington Railway during the company's centenary celebrations in 1925. The plaque, which was funded by contributions from Italian railway workers, honours engineer George Stephenson. The left track depicts an Italian railway worker wearing a hammer at his belt and the right track depicts a shunter wearing a shunter's horn. Above is a portrait of Stephenson. In unveiling the plaque, the president of the Executive Committee of the International Railway Congress called Stephenson 'the first railwayman in the world' and expressed deep gratitude for Stephenson's role in laying the foundations for the world's railway industry. |
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The museum's Great Hall was once York North locomotive roundhouse which, between 1878 and the early 1970s, was York's largest engine shed, capable of storing over a hundred locomotives. Today, the Great Hall contains over 40 historic locomotives, wagons, carriages, and other railway artefacts dating between the early 1800s and the present day. At the centre of the photo is a signal gantry, dating from 1921, taken from Ruislip, west of London; the gantry displays signals for Northolt Junction, near Ruislip, which covered routes to Paddington and Marylebone stations. |
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One end of the Great Hall houses a café where visitors can relax among historic locomotives, as well as museum's gift shop. On the far side of the Great Hall, an upper floor houses temporary exhibition space and the museum's library and archives. |
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The museum's collection includes some of earliest British steam locomotives, passenger and freight carriages, and even a Japanese bullet train. |
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Historic British Rail locomotives at one end of the museum's Great Hall. |
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In 1878, there were three locomotive turntables in this building, with a fourth added in 1915. The current electrically-powered turntable was installed in 1954, following damage to the building from a German aid raid in the Second World War. A second turntable was removed during major renovations to the Great Hall in 1990. The remaining turntable continues to be used to move the museum's collection around as necessary. |
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Another view of the historic locomotives and rolling stock arrayed around the edge of the turntable in the Great Hall. The Great Hall's items are grouped according to four themes:
- The way ahead: how modernisation transformed Britain's railways and created the railway we know today;
- Symbols of an age: how the steam locomotive became the main way of moving people and goods across Britain;
- Serving the nation: from mines to main lines, Britain's railways revoutionised goods and passenger transport;
- Going global: railways spread around the world, transforming societies and economies and driving innovation.
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The Flying Scotsman was named after the premier, non-stop rail service that ran between London and Edinburgh. Restored to working order in 2016, the Flying Scotsman is Brtain's oldest main line working locomotive and ise used to haul special tour trains around the country when not on display at the National Railway Museum. |
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The famous 'Flying Scotsman', an A1 Class locomotive designed by Sir Nigel Gresley, the Chief Mechanical Engineer of the London & North Eastern Railway (LNER), and built by LNER's Doncaster Works in 1923. Flying Scotsman was the third of 52 A1 Class locomotives built by the LNER between 1922 and 1935 and is the only surviving example of its class. Unveiled at the British Empire Exhibition in 1924, Flying Scotsman was named after the LNER's premier express service of the same name, which departed London King's Cross Station for Edinburgh Waverley Station at 10:00am daily. With the nationalisation of Britain's railway system in 1948, Flying Scotsman came under the ownership of British Railways, which operated the locomotive until 1963. After changing hands through various private owners who desired to preserve this famous locomotive, Flying Scotsman was acquired by the National Railway Museum in 2004 with the help of the National Heritage Memorial Fund, over 6,000 private donations, and a matching grant by Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Group. |
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A closer look at Flying Scotsman's name plate over its driving wheels. With a 4-6-2 configuration, Flying Scotsman is a 'Pacific' type locomotive, featuring 4 leading wheels on two axles, six powered and coupled driving wheels on three axles, and two trailing wheels on one axle. |
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Painted in the London & North Eastern Railway's apple green livery when delivered, Flying Scotsman was, like all railway stock, painted black during the Second World War. After the war, it was repainted in the apple green livery again. During service with British Railways after the 1948 nationalisation of the British rail network, Flying Scotsman was painted blue for a time and then British Railways green until retirement in 1963. Originally assigned the number 4472 by LNER, Flying Scotsman today carries the number 60103, assigned to it by British Railways from 1948. |
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A look inside Flying Scotsman's driver's cab. Over its lifetime Flying Scotsman has set two world records, being the first steam locomotive recorded reaching 100 mph (160.9 km/h) in 1934 and having the longest non-stop run of a steam locomotive during a 422 mile run in Australia in 1989. Since its acquisition by the National Railway Museum in 2004, the locomotive has been extensively restored, with work completed in 2016. Flying Scotsman now runs excursion journeys around Britain when not on display in the museum at York. |
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Looking into Flying Scotsman's coal tender. |
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Buffet Car No. 9135, designed by Flying Scotsman's designer Sir Nigel Gresley and built at York in 1937 for the London & North Eastern Railway (LNER). To attract passengers from intercity bus lines in the 1930s, the LNER introduced in-carriage, quick service catering to its Flying Scotsman route between London and Edinburgh. Buffet cars proved very popular with passengers, whether for snacks sold from a trolley or first class dining. |
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The interior of Buffet Car No. 9135, used on the Flying Scotsman service between London and Edinburgh. The functionality and versatility of Sir Nigel Gresley's design meant that No. 9135 remained in service for 40 years, being redecorated several times over the decades. |
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The 63.5 foot (19.4 metre) Buffet Car No. 9135 is displayed behind the Class A3 locomotive No. 60103 'Flying Scotsman'. To make up for the monotony of an eight hour journey between London and Edinburgh, the Flying Scotsman service offered passengers first rate dining, cocktails in the bar carriage, and even the option of getting a haircut in the onboard salon. By 1939, the journey time had been reduced to seven hours and today's high speed electric trains whisk passengers between London and Edinburgh in just over four hours. |
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A display of London & North Eastern Railway buffet car service items from the early 20th century, from china and glassware to utensils and an ashtray. |
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British Rail buffet car service items from the late 1980s, by which time packaged sandwiches and coffee in disposable coffee cups were common sights, sold from onboard trolleys. |
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A display of Flying Scotsman souvenirs and memorabilia. Items include the coat of arms of the London & North Eastern Railway (Flying Scotsman's owner); a commemorative plaque marking the locomotive's record-breaking non-stop run of 679 kilometres (422 miles) during a visit to Australia in 1989; a 1983 brochure commissioned in 1983 to mark Flying Scotsman's Diamond Jubilee tour of the East Coast Main Line; a souvenir t-shirt from Flying Scotsman's tour of Australia in 1988-89; commemorative medals from Flying Scotsman's visit to the US in 1969; an 'O' gauge model of Flying Scotsman painted in British Railways' express passenger blue livery; and a 1:24 scale model of Spitfire Vb BM202 'Flying Scotsman', one of two Spitfire fighter aircraft named after the famous locomotive. |
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Class 5 tank locomotive No. 1008, built at the Horwich Works in Lancashire in 1889 for the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway. The Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway operated a number of busy passenger services between the industrial centres of Liverpool, Manchester, Bradford, and Leeds, and also operated trains to seaside resorts like Blackpool. No. 1008 is the only surving example of the 330 Class 5 tank locomotives manufactured between 1889 and 1911 and was the first to be produced at the Horwich Works. For over 60 years, No. 1008 operated on the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway, being withdrawn from service only in 1954. |
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The North Shed of the museum, formerly a depot for diesel locomotives until 1983, contains a vast collection of railway artefacts in open storage, allowing visitors to wander amongst the rows of packed shelves. |
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Items on display include a large number of scale models of British locomotives and rolling stock. Each is tagged with a unique item number and brief description. |
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Models built by Bert Hunt of Johannesburg, South Africa and presented to the Directors of the Great Western Railway (GWR) in March 1947. The large locomotive is a 1:8 scale model of GWR's 'King George V', built in 1927, with tender. Below is a model of the London & North Western Railway's train called '1888 Races to the North', consisting of a Problem Class locomotive, No. 806, with tender, and four West Coast Joint Stock radial carriages. |
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A collection of pre-1923 china, pewter, and glassware from the constituent companies of the Southern Railway, including the London, Brighton & South Coast Railway, the London, Chatham & Dover Railway, and the London & South Western Railway. |
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A cabinet containing pre-1923 china, pewter, and glassware of the constituent companies of the London & North Eastern Railway (LNER), including the East Coast Joint Stock, the Manchester, Sheffield & Lincolnshire Railway, and the Great Central Railway. |
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A collection of pre-1948 Great Western Railway china, pewter, and glassware, used by the railway's onboard catering services. |
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A cabinet containing a diverse assortment of artefacts, including railway lamps, a British Railways first aid kit, badges and stopwatches used by railway personnel, and china and pewter servingware used aboard the trains. |
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A 1:12 scale model of a London & North Eastern Railway carriage, circa 1936. This model illustrates the passenger experience aboard the non-stop Flying Scotsman service between London and Edinburgh in the 1930s. |
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Shelves containing chairs used by various British railways, glass windows from railways stations, and a 1:12 scale model of the L Class steam locomotive No. 333 'Remembrance'. |
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A model of the twin-screw steamship Maid of Orleans, built in 1918 by William Denny & Brothers Ltd in Dumbarton. After a short stint as a requisitioned troop transport in 1918, the ship entered service in 1919 as a cross-Channel ferry for the London-based South Eastern & Chatham Railway/Southern Railway. During the Second World War, Maid of Orleans was again requisitioned as a troop transport and took part in the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force from Dunkirk. In 1942/43, she was converted into a Landing Ship (Infantry) and participated in the D-Day landings in Normandy. At 9:30pm on 28 June 1944, Maid of Orleans was damaged by an explosion while sailing in convoy southeast of the Isle of Wight and sank 30 minutes later. Of the complement of 98 aboard, six died. |
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Items displayed here include railway station signage; a fire hose cart from the London & North Eastern Railway's New Holland Station; a Westinghouse air and vacuum brake demonstration rig in a wooden cabinet; and a 1:12 scale model of the London, Midland & Scottish Railway First Class sleeping car No.352 displayed at the Paris Exhibition of 1937. |
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Switch levers, signals, and walls adorned with locomotive name plates and railway station signage. |
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Recognised as the world's oldest working model railway by the Guinness Book of Records, this layout was constructed in 1912 to train signalmen at the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Signalling School. Trainee signalmen were educated in the safe operation of trains around the layout using its signals, points, and bell codes. Attendance at a class using this model railway was voluntary until 1953 and, from then until 1995, was mandatory. In 1995, the layout was moved from Manchester Victoria Station to the National Railway Museum and restored to its 1925 appearance. Volunteers now demonstrate its operation at least one weekend a month. |
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Looking down the length of the North Shed, filled with thousands of railway artefacts. |
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A British Transport Police standard pattern helmet from 1975. |
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A 1:3 scale model of a 12-ton coal wagon, No. 1935, built at the CWS Wagon Works in Peterborough in 1935 for the CWS Ltd Coal Department of Manchester. |
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More artefacts on display, including tableware, stained glass windows from the station refreshment room at Folkestone West, and a station lamp post from the Great Western Railway's station at Henley-on-Thames. |
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A display of model trains built by Mr. J.P. Richards (1902-1999) and gifted to the National Railway Museum by his estate. Richards began making models in 1944 and continued up until shortly before his death. The model trains displayed here represent locomotives and rolling stock operating on the London & North Western Railway's network between 1902 and 1923. |
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As Mr. Richards built the models to the precisely accurate 33mm gauge, rather than the conventional 'O' scale gauge of 32mm, they are not compatible with the museum's model train layout. The collection contains 42 locomotives, 150 passenger carriages, and 420 freight wagons. As the models are built to run reliably, the National Railway Museum hopes to build a layout on which to show them to the public in a more dynamic manner. |
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A Model B8050 'QuickFare' self-service ticket machine built by Swiss company Ascom Autelca AG and introduced by British Rail in 1989. The machines permitted passengers to purchase the most popular types of ticket, without having to go to a booking office. The Quickfare machines have all since been replaced by more modern technology. |
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A 1:8 scale model of the Great Eastern Railway locomotive No. 1900 'Claud Hamilton'. Claud Hamilton, built in 1900, was the prototype of the Claud Hamilton class of 121 express passenger locomotives. The first 40 Clauds were built as oil-fired engines to run on the waste oil residue from the Stratford oil-gas plant which produced the gas used in the Great Eastern Railway's carriage lamps. The introduction of electric carriage lighting eliminated the supply of waste oil and all of the Claud class locomotives were converted to coal fired engines. During the coal shortage of 1916 and the coal strikes of 1921 and 1926-27, some of the Claud class locomotives were converted back to oil-firing. The Claud class went through a number of rebuilds and modifications during their long service lives. The original Claud class locomotive was withdrawn from service in 1947 and its name transferred to another of the class (No. 1856), which was retired in 1957. |
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A model of a North Eastern Railway Class C freight locomotive. |
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A silver centre piece from the dinner service owned by Sir Daniel Gooch (1816-1889), the Chairman of the Great Western Railway (GWR) between 1864 to 1889. Gooch commissioned the dinner service in 1872 using funds given to him by the Directors of the GWR in recognition of his success in returning the railway to profitablity. The dinner service was eventually acquired by Sir Felix Pole, a later GWR Chairman, in 1941. The centre piece features a depiction of Lord of the Isles, one of the Broad Gauge 4-2-2 locomotives Gooch introduced, as well as figures representing famous railway engineers George Stephenson (1781-1848), Joseph Locke (1805-1860), and Isambard Kingdom Brunel (1806-1859), surmounted by a female Muse symbolising invention and achievement. |
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A construction locomotive and muck truck used in the construction of the Channel Tunnel between 1990 and 1994. The locomotive was one of 12 built by Hunslet Engine Company in Yorkshire in 1989, and nicknamed Lawrence by its crew. The muck truck was built by Mühlhäuser in Germany the same year. These vehicles and others like them removed 4.3 million cubic metres of earth and rock as the tunnel was excavated. The world's longest undersea tunnel was carved under the English Channel by enormous boring machines that cut through 250 metres of solid rock every day. The amount of earth and rock excavated for the Channel Tunnel increased the UK's area by 90 acres. |
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The entrance to the museum's model railway display. |
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The museum's model railway operates for seven hours every day for 362 days each year. Since 1992, the model railway has operated for 82,000 hours. Many of the model train locomotives and carriages in the museum's layout were donated by Arthur Hey (1930-1982) from his extensive collection. |
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Part of the museum's 'O' gauge model railway layout, featuring a livestock loading platform. O gauge model railways were introduced by a German toy manufacturer in the 1900s and remained the smallest mass-produced model railways until the 1930s. O gauge railway tracks are spaced 32 millimetres (1.25 inches) apart. The development of the smaller 'OO' gauge model railways after the Second World War led to increased demand, as OO gauge tracks were small enough (16.5 millimetres; 0.65 inch) to fit in people's homes. |
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The model locomotives running on these tracks cover around six miles (9.65 kilometres) each day. If their mileage was scaled to the size of the locomotives, this distance would be the equivalent of 261 miles (420 kilometres), approximately the distance between York and Amsterdam. |
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A replica of a traditional German Hund truck from circa 1560; the model was built in 1986. Such trucks were used on primitive railways from at least the 15th century to remove excavated rock from mines. The trucks were pushed along the track by the miners. Hund trucks were used in the UK from at least 1566 to around 1630 in copper mines in Cumbria. These mines employed many mining engineers from the Tyrol region of Austria, who brought the European Hund truck technology with them. |
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Truck No. 174 of the Peak Forest Canal Tramway, built in Derbyshire in the early 19th century. Such tramway wagons were used to carry limestone from a quarry to a nearby canal for onward shipment. The tramway wagons used gravity to travel downhill to the canal. The bodies of the wagons were detachable from their wheels and, upon reaching the canal, the bodies would have been tipped up at one end by a special crane, thereby allowing the limestone to tumble into a waiting barge. |
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A wooden chaldron 'waggon' of the Cramlington Colliery Waggonway in Northumberland, dating from circa 1826. A chaldron was an archaic unit of measurement for coal, being approximately 2.5 tons. The coal mines of northeastern England used horse-drawn waggonways to move large quantities of coal from the pits to rivers for onward transport by ship. Given the competitiveness of the coal mining industry, mine owners vied with one another to increase the efficiency of their operations, with networks of waggonway tracks soon spreading across Northumberland and County Durham. Such chaldron waggons were used for centuries on the region's waggonways and, later, steam-powered railways. The Cramlington Colliery Waggonway was established in 1823 to connect mines with the coal loading platforms on the River Tyne. Of note, 'waggon' was the common spelling of 'wagon' in Scotland and northern England well into the 20th century. |
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Named after the Roman goddess of industry/activity, 'Agenoria' is a primitive locomotive designed by the railway engineer John Rastrick and built in Stourbridge in 1829. Working with the inventor and mining engineer Richard Trevithick, Rastrick designed this high pressure steam engine powerful enough to carry its own weight. Agenoria operated on the Shutt End Colliery Railway in Staffordshire, owned by the Earl of Dudley, and was used to haul coal wagons between Dudley's coal mines and a canal basin until circa 1864. Rastrick also built the 'Stourbridge Lion' in 1828, the first steam locomotive to operate in the United States. The partially-disassembled Agenoria was re-discovered in the early 1880s and was re-assembled in 1884 and displayed at an exhibition. It was also exhibited during the 1951 Festival of Britain. |
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An original Third Class open carriage of the Bodmin & Wadebridge Railway in Cornwall, built in 1834. Third Class carriages on the early railways sometimes had no seats, with passengers crowded in; this carriage is a standard 17 foot (5.2. metre) wagon with added wooden planks as seats. The Bodmin & Wadebridge Railway was the first steam railway in Cornwall and was principally built to haul minerals to the port of Wadebridge and sand inland from the Camel Estuary; however, it did carry passengers on some parts of the line. This carriage and two others of the Bodmin & Wadebridge were discovered in a shed in 1895. Display at Waterloo Station in London from 1915, the carriages transferred to the National Railway Museum in 1975. |
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A Second Class carriage from the Bodmin & Wadebridge Railway, built in 1834. This carriage and its First and Third Class equivalents also displayed at the museum are the oldest, most complete set of railway carriages in the world. The 17-foot (5.2 metre) Second Class carriage could carry 16 passengers. The wheels are made of cast iron and broke frequently. Second Class carriages in the early days of the railways often lacked glass in the windows, making travel uncomfortable. The Bodmin & Wadebridge Railway developed the concept of excursion trains and, in April 1840, even ran a special service to take passengers to Bodmin Gaol to witness the hanging of two murderers. |
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A composite First and Second Class carriage of the Bodmin & Wadebridge Railway. Although its date of construction is uncertain, the underframe likely dates from the 1830s whereas the oak-framed, pine-panelled body is believed to be from a later period. Much less advanced than other passenger carriages in the museum's collection, the Bodmin & Wadebridge carriages are equipped with 'dumb' buffers, lacking springs to cushion the shock of carriages jostling against each other when underway. The interior of the First Class compartment has upholstered seating, while the Second Class compartment has wooden seats. |
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Two reproduction Liverpool and Manchester Railway passenger carriages built in the 1930s for the centenary celebrations of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway and based on the original 1834 carriages. The Liverpool and Manchester Railway ran the first regular timetable of trains, offering travel that was faster, more affordable, and more comfortable than travel by road. First Class passengers rode in covered stagecoach carriages, while Third Class passengers were assigned to open wagons. |
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A closer look at the reproduction First Class passenger carriage used by the Liverpool and Manchester Railway in 1834. |
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A six-wheeled United Dairies glass-lined tank wagon built in Derby in 1937 and used to transport raw milk from remote farms to central creameries. This wagon was used in milk trains operated by the London, Midland & Scottish Railway, which collected milk from Cumbria and North Wales. Raw milk was originally transported by rail in churns; however, with the introduction of tank wagons like this in the late 1920s, the volume of milk that could be transported was vastly increased. Following stability issues and several derailments of four-wheeled tank wagons, the six-wheeled tank wagon design was introduced from 1931, allowing the milk wagons to safely travel at the same speed as the passenger trains to which they were often attached. The UK's Milk Marketing Board assumed control of all milk transport by 1942 and, as road transport overtook rail transport in the late 1960s, the Board began curtailing contracts for milk haulage by rail. The final rail contracts were ended in 1981 and, in 1986, the Milk Marketing Board disposed of its remaining fleet of milk tank wagons. |
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A 1934-built cut-away replica of Robert Stephenson's 'Rocket' locomotive of 1829. Rocket won a competition launched by the Liverpool and Manchester Railway in 1829 to determine which method was best to haul carriages and wagons: horses, stationary engines using cables, or steam locomotives. After Rocket's win, the Liverpool and Manchester Railway became the first intercity main line railway and steam locomotion revolutionised transport. As Rocket was a prototype, it was altered and improved over its 30 year working career. The cut-away replica of Rocket allows visitors to see the numerous tubes in the boiler, the blastpipe, and the direct connection between the piston and the wheels, all of which improved Rocket's efficiency. |
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No. 3 'Coppernob', built by the Furness Railway in Liverpool in 1846 and one of four such locomotives built in 1844 in 1846. The name 'Coppernob' was derived from the domed copper firebox which these locomotives featured. Coppernob is a bar-framed locomotive, and the sole surviving example of this type in the UK. A bar-framed locomotive used a slim frame of iron bars for a structure rather than the heavy iron and timber bars used in other locomotives. This design allowed for a big, powerful locomotive that was relatively lightweight. The bar-framed design became the standard for locomotives built in the United States in the 19th century. |
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Coppernob and its tender. After a long life hauling freight and passengers on the Furness Railway, Coppernob was retired from service in 1900 and put on display in a glass shelter in the train station at Barrow-in-Furness. In May 1941, a German air raid destroyed the shelter and damaged Coppernob, puncturing the boiler and platework, holes which can still be seen. Moved into storage at the Horwich Works, Coppernob remained there until 1963 when it was sent to the Clapham Transport Museum. |
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A variety of British railway artefacts displayed around one side of the Great Hall's turntable, including a locomotive tender, a covered goods wagon, a steam locomotive, and an electric motor coach. |
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The 1956-1965 logo of the state-owned British Railways, as seen on the side of the 'Ellerman Lines' tender. This logo was British Railways' second logo and depicts a rampant lion emerging from a heraldic crown and holding a spoked wheel. The logo was nicknamed the 'Ferret and Dartboard'. |
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A Great Western Railway 'Mink G' covered goods van, No. 112884, built in 1931. The Mink G vans measured 30 feet (9.1 metres) in length and had a carrying capacity of 20 tons (18,144 kilograms). |
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The Class 1001 locomotive No. 1275, built for the North Eastern Railway in Glasgow in 1874. No. 1275 was one of 192 Class 1001 locomotives built between 1852 and 1875 and known as the 'Hippopotamus Class'. |
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The Class 1001s featured long boilers, patented by Robert Stephenson in 1842, with their fireboxes situated behind the rear driving axles. While the longer boiler barrel made the Class 1001 locomotives unstable at high speed, it did render great power. The design was seen as a way for standard gauge (4 feet 8.5 inches; 1,435 millimetres) locomotives such as the Class 1001 to match the power of broader gauge locomotives. The Class 1001 locomotives were first used on the Stockton & Darlington Railway and, when that line was amalgamated into the North Eastern Railway, the Class 1001s continued to be built. No. 1275 was withdrawn from service in 1923. |
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A look inside the notably open cab of No. 1275. This left the driver and firemen exposed to the elements, especially harsh during transits of the Stainmore Summit, the highest stretch of railway in England. Over the course of its 50-year service life, No. 1275 covered over 900,000 miles (1,448,409 kilometres). |
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A tiny steam locomotive named 'Pet', built by the London & North Western Railway's Crewe Works in Cheshire in 1865. The Crewe Railway Works pioneered the use of steam locomotives on industrial sites and Pet was used to move parts around the foundries, boiler shops, and wheeling sheds of the large and busy Crewe Works, riding on tracks measuring a mere 18 inches (477 millimetres) wide. Pet and other small locomotives allowed workers to move industrial equipment around more easily than with handcarts or wheelbarrows, as previously. In 1929, Pet was retired after 64 years of service as the Crewe Works adopted gasoline- and diesel-powered tractors. After sitting forgotten in the Crewe Works until 1965, Pet was donated to the National Railway Museum and restored through the efforts of volunteers. It returned to the museum's Great Hall in 1995. |
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A 4-SUB electric motor coach, No. 8143, built by Metro Cammell in Birmingham in 1925 for the Southern Railway. While electrification of railway lines in the UK commenced in the early 20th century, it was the Southern Railway that greatly expanded electrification. In the 1920s, Southern began replacing steam traction with electrical power, ushering in modern services that were faster and more frequent. Southern Railway later became part of British Railways Southern Region. |
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Part of this electric motor coach is believed to have once been reserved for women passengers. Compartments or even whole carriages reserved for 'ladies only' were once common in the early 20th century, and often located near the Guard Van for security. Nevertheless, many women preferred to ride in the general carriages with their male companions or smoke in the smoking carriage and, by the 1970s, ladies only carriages were seen as antiquated and were phased out. |
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The Stirling Single steam locomotive No. 1 and tender. Designed by Patrick Stirling and built for the Great Northern Railway (GNR) at Doncaster in 1870, the Stirling Singles were intended for express passenger service between London King's Cross and York. The class was distinguished by their large single driving wheel, allowing the locomotives to haul trains weighing around 150 tons at an average sped of 82 km/h (51 mph). No. 1 was the prototype Stirling Single, of which 53 were built between 1870 and 1895. No. 1 was retired from service in 1907, though the last Stirling Single was not retired until 1916. |
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A closer look at one of the large, single driving wheels of Stirling Single locomotive No. 1. The large diameter of the two driving wheels improved mechanical reliability during fast running as wheel movement amplified the effect of each piston stroke. Moreover, the weight of the large wheels improved grip on the rails. On the negative side, the weight of the driving wheels could cause rails to break, while the design of the locomotive precluded room for a larger boiler. By the end of the 19th century, trains were getting heavier and the Stirling Single lacked scope for improvement; as such, the class was relegated to secondary duties before being withdrawn from service. |
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The Q1 Class locomotive No. C1, built at Brighton in 1942 for the Southern Railway. No. C1 was the prototype of the Q1 Class and these 51.25 ton locomotives were a response to the austerity of wartime Britain, being a functional, 'no frills' design that was powerful while also being cheap to build and easy to maintain. The disc wheels employed on the Q1 Class used less material than spoked wheels and needed less maintenance, while the holes in the discs made them lighter, thereby reducing wear on the tracks. The Q1 Class also featured many welded components to save on weight and materials. During the Second World War, the Q1 Class locomotives on Southern Railway's network hauled cargoes of goods, weapons, and other military equipment to the coast. Despite being a wartime expedient, the 40 locomotives of the Q1 Class had a long operational life, with some serving into the 1960s on both freight and passenger routes. No. C1 was retired in 1964 and subsequently spent the years 1977 to 2004 running on the Bluebell Line heritage railway in Sussex before coming to the National Railway Museum. |
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A look inside the driver's cab of the Q1 Class locomotive No. C1. The spartan design reflects the urgent wartime need for a cheap, functional locomotive that could be built quickly while minimising the use of scarce raw materials. For example, the Q1 Class did away with the traditional footplating over the driving wheels and used a simple slab-sided casing for the boiler. |
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A narrow gauge brake composite/observation carriage built by the Bristol Wagon and Carriage Works in 1898 for the Lynton & Barnstaple Railway. The narrow gauge Lynton & Barnstaple Railway connected the Devon & Somerset Railway to the coastal resorts of Lynton and Lynmouth. Although a picturesque route with dramatic views across Exmoor, the Lynton & Barnstaple was not economically viable and was absorbed by the Southern Railway, being closed in 1935. While most of the narrow gauge rolling stock was scrapped, several carriages were used as garden sheds or summer homes. This carriage is one that escaped the scrappers to become a summer house in the garden of the Vicar of Clannaborough until the 1980s. |
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A two-foot narrow gauge Double-Fairlie locomotive named 'Livingston Thompson', built at the Boston Lodge WOrks in Gwynedd, Wales in 1885. Railway engineer Robert Fairlie designed the locomotive with powered wheels on small swivelling bogies that allowed it to navigate the tight curves of narrow gauge railways in rocky, mountainous terrain while still delivering the power required to pull heavy loads up steep gradients. Fairlie's locomotives were sold widely around the world, including in Mexico, Russia, New Zealand, and Canada. Livingston Thompson was used by the Ffestiniog Railway in North Wales until 1971, when it was donated to the National Railway Museum and subsequently restored. |
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The industrial locomotive Bauxite No. 2, built by Black, Hawthorne and Co. in Gateshead in 1874. Such industrial locomotives were manufactured by dozens of railway companies for the unglamorous but vital work of moving coal, building dams, carrying timber, and transporting finished goods around the UK. Because these locomotives attracted little public attention, few have been collected and preserved and Bauxite No. 2 is therefore a rarity. Bauxite No. 2 is an industrial saddle tank locomotive, which was employed as a factory shunter for International Aluminium Co. Ltd. until 1947, pushing wagons of aluminium-bearing bauxite rock into the smelters. The locomotive's large buffers allowed it to shunt wagons of a variety of different buffer heights. When retired from service, Bauxite No. 2 was donated to the North Eastern Society of Engineering Historians rather than being scrapped and thus became one of the earliest locomotives to be preserved. It was donated to the National Railway Museum in 1953 and has been preserved in its appearance at retirement to illustrate for visitors what tough, dirty conditions an industrial locomotive faced in the 19th and early 20th centuries. |
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A three-compartment, First Class carriage of the Eastern Counties Railway, built at the Stratford Works, London, in 1851. It is one of the oldest surviving railway carriages in the world and, when built, was the epitome of luxury, featuring glazed windows, oil lighting, and upholstered seating. This carriage was later converted into an inspection saloon, with an office in the central compartment and more modern wheels and frames added. After a 50-year service life, the carriage escaped the scrappers and has been a museum artefact for more than 120 years. |
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The Star Class locomotive No. 4003 'Lode Star', built by the Great Western Railway (GWR) Company's Swindon Works in 1907. The Star Class were the culmination of years of research and experimentation by GWR's Chief Mechanical Engineer, George Churchward. Churchward imported French locomotives and operated them on British railways to learn how they worked, combining his findings with American technology, such as more efficient boiler designs. The Star Class locomotive set the standard for GWR locomotive design for the next 20 years, with 73 of the Star Class being built between 1906 and 1923. Star Class locomotives were based in the London and Plymouth areas and pulled the GWR's heaviest long-distance West of England express trains, reaching a top speed of 145 km/h (90 mph). After retiring from the GWR, George Churchward was killed in 1922 by a locomotive of the Castle Class (a successor to the Star Class) while inspecting the railway line near his home in Swindon. |
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Lode Star is displayed at the National Railway Museum in its condition as of October 1932, following several alterations and new equipment installations in the years following its 1907 manufacture. Lode Star was withdrawn from service in July 1951. |
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Displayed on the Great Hall's turntable in April 2024 is the Great Western Railway (GWR) Diesel Railcar No. 4. The GWR's diesel railcars were designed by Charles Collett and No. 4 was built at Park Royal, London in 1934. As train speeds increased, longer distance business travel became feasible and these diesel railcars were aimed at business travellers journeying between Birmingham and Cardiff. Although tickets on the GWR's diesel railcars were the same price as the standard third-class fare, travellers were required to book tickets in advance as each railcar held only 44 seats. |
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The diesel railcars featured a futuristic streamlined shape, earning the nickname 'Flying Bananas'. No. 4 remained in service until 1959. |
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Locomotive No. 390, built by Sharp, Stewart and Company in Glasgow in 1896, was shipped to South Africa where it operated on the railways connecting the inland diamond mines to the coast. Diamond mining in South Africa led to a massive expansion of South Africa's railways in the late-19th century. No. 390 was in service for over 70 years until it was donated by Zambian President Kenneth Kaunda to David Shepherd, an artist and conservationist. Shepherd had donated a helicopter to Zambia in 1974 to help prevent poaching and No. 390 was President Kaunda's act of reciprocity. Shepherd brought No. 390 back to Britain in 1975. |
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A look inside the cab of the Glasgow-built No. 390. |
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A KF Class locomotive, No. 7, built by the Vulcan Foundry in Newton-le-Willows in Lancashire in 1935. This is the largest locomotive in the National Railway Museum's collection and one of the largest locomotives ever built in Britain, being both higher and wider than standard British locomotives, despite running on the same standard gauge track. The 24 locomotives of the KF Class were built in 1935-36 for the Chinese Government Railways, which had to negotiate steep hills and weak bridges on the routes linking Canton to Hankow and Nanking to Shanghai. The KF Class also has to cope with poor quality coal, extreme climatic conditions, and chemically poor water supplies in China. As such, the KF Class needed to be large and powerful but without putting too much weight on each axle. No. 7 was retired in 1977 and, in 1981, the Chinese government presented it to the National Railway Museum as a gift from the people of China to the people of the UK. |
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An electric motor coach, No. 28249, built by Metropolitan Cammell in Birmingham in 1915. Nicknamed 'Oerlikon' for the electrical equipment onboard, which was supplied by Switzerland's Oerlikon company, this electric motor coach was part of an electric train operated by the London & North Western Railway on suburban services in London. Such electric trains were cleaner than steam-powered trains and also accelerated more quickly, a valuable asset when transporting large numbers of people between closely-spaced stations on commuter lines. Given the benefits of electrical traction, the London and North Western Railway electrified its commuter routes beginning in 1914, decades before its main lines were electrified. |
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The Class A1 locomotive No. 82 'Boxhill', built at Brighton in 1880 for the London, Brighton & South Coast Railway. A total of 50 Class A1 locomotives were built between 1872 and 1880 for the London, Brighton & South Coast Railway's suburban and cross-London services. The Class A1 was designed to work efficiently over short distances, such as the 8.5 mile South London Line between Victoria and London Bridge stations, which had ten intermediate stops and steep gradients. Such point-to-point routes required rapid acceleration from standing starts to maintain tight train schedules. As passenger volumes increased, heavier trains were required and many of the Class A1s were allocated to other duties and retirements commenced as early as 1898. Nevertheless, the last Class A1 was not retired until November 1963. |
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No. 82 Boxhill is one of the final 1880 batch of Class A1 locomotives manufactured. From 1913, it served as shed pilot at Brighton until retired from service in 1946. Boxhill was restored close to its original 1880 configuration in 1947. |
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A diesel engine designed by the Swiss company Sulzer. A diesel engine would be connected to a generator which created electricity used to power motors that drove the wheels of a locomotive. Under British Railways' 1955 Modernisation Plan, hundreds of diesel engines were fitted to locomotives, replacing the steam locomotives which the Plan phased out. Sulzer began designing small diesel engines in 1912 and soon found a worldwide market. British Railways purchased almost 700 Sulzer diesel engines in the 1950s and 1960s; this one was made under licence by Vickers at Barrow-in-Furness in 1960 and was originally used to power a Class 24 or 25 locomotive. |
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The British Railways Class 20 diesel-electric locomotive No. D8000, built by the English Electric Company's Vulcan Foundry in Newton-le-Willows in 1957. The Class 20 was the first mainline diesel locomotive introduced in the wake of British Railways' 1955 Modernisation Plan, which committed to phasing out steam power. Designed to pull freight trains, the Class 20s could be coupled together to pull heavier loads along poor track. This versatility gave the Class 20s longevity and there are still some Class 20s in service today. |
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The rear end of the Class 20 locomotive D8000. Class 20s were sometimes used on passenger services, though their lack of heating meant that they were generally used during summer months for service to seaside resorts, such as 'The Jolly Fisherman' service to Skegness. A total of 228 Class 20s were built up until early 1968; D8000 was retired in 1981. |
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This Class 9F steam locomotive, No. 92220, was the last steam locomotive ever built for British Railways. It was named 'Evening Star' through a competition among British Railways' Western Region staff, the winner receiving 10 guineas. Constructed at the Swindon Works in Wiltshire in 1960, Evening Star's copper-capped chimney and green livery mark it as a special commemorative vehicle, as all other Class 9F locomotives were painted black; it was also the only Class 9F locomotive to be given a name rather than just a number. |
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A view of the inside of Evening Star's cab. |
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Although 251 Class 9F locomotives were built between 1954 and 1960, British Railways decided as early as 1955 to phase out steam power. As a result, Evening Star operated for only five years before being retired in 1965. The Class 9Fs were some of the most powerful locomotives ever built in Britain, designed to haul heavy loads at fast speeds. |
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The D Class locomotive No. 737, built for the South Eastern and Chatham Railway in 1901. Built in the early 1900s, the 50 D Class locomotives were known as 'coppertops' due to the brass tops on their chimneys. They operated until the 1950s, pulling passenger carriages to ports like Dover and Folkestone to connect with the railway's special boat trains to France and Belgium. No. 737, which was retired from service in 1981, was transferred to the National Railway Museum collection in 1975 and featured in the 1981 Oscar-winning film Chariots of Fire. |
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Inside the driver's cab on the D Class locomotive No. 737. |
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No. 737 and its tender. With elegant design elements, such as the wheel arch that curves up into the cab, the D Class epitomised late-Victorian/early-Edwardian era locomotive engineering. |
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A Pullman Company First Class parlour car, manufactured by the Birmingham Railway Carriage and Wagon Company in 1913. Named 'Topaz', this 57.5 foot (17.5 metre) long parlour car was used by the South Eastern and Chatham Railway on its services from London to Folkestone and Dover, where passengers could take a ferry to France and another train to Paris. American entrepreneur George Pullman became a household name when he introduced his luxurious Pullman cars on US railways in 1862. The Midland Railway imported the concept of the luxury parlour car to the UK in 1874 to capitalise on the growing popularity of international travel in the years before the First World War. |
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Topaz was withdrawn from service in 1960 and subsequently restored by the Pullman Car Company, including the return of its original pre-1920s crimson livery. The interior of Topaz features elegant lighting, wood panelling, and red velvet upholstery. |
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The Coronation class locomotive No. 6229, 'Duchess of Hamilton', built in Crew, Cheshire in 1938 for the London, Midland and Scottish Railway. The Coronation class were powerful locomotives capable of climbing the steep hills on the West Coast route between London and Glasgow. As the epitome of British engineering and futuristic Art Deco styling, Duchess of Hamilton was exhibited at the New York World's Fair in 1939. |
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While the streamlined casing on Duchess of Hamilton increased aerodynamic performance, it also added weight and complicated access to the engine for maintenance. The casing was therefore removed in 1948. From 1980 to 1996, the Friends of the National Railway Museum funded Duchess of Hamilton's return to steam and, in 2009, the restoration of the streamlined casing. |
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The Class A4 locomotive No. 4468, better known as 'Mallard', was built by the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) at its Doncaster Works in 1938. Designed as an express passenger locomotive by Sir Nigel Gresley, Mallard's streamlined shape was inspired by the work of Italian auto designer Ettore Bugatti. While external streamlining cut down on wind resistance, Mallard's internal streamlining helped steam travel more efficiently through the boiler system. The A4 Class was known as a 'Pacific' type locomotive, with a 4-6-2 wheel arrangement denoting the use of four leading wheels (on two axles), six powered and coupled driving wheels (on three axles), and two trailing wheels on one axle. |
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The brass builder's plate on Mallard. |
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Mallard holds the world speed record for a steam locomotive, having achieved a top speed of 203 km/h (126 mph) on 3 July 1938. This record plate affixed to the side of Mallard, commemorates that achievement. |
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Inside Mallard's operator cab. |
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The Class A4 was the consequence of the stiff rivalry for passengers between the LNER and the London, Midland and Scottish Railway in the 1920s and 1930s, when the companies ran competing express routes between London and Scotland. The use of fast, elegant locomotives attracted publicity and passengers as the companies sought to best each other's speed records. Mallard was retired from service on 25 April 1963. |
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Coupled to the Class A4 locomotive 'Mallard' in the Great Hall is Dynamometer Car No. 902502 of the North Eastern Railway, built at York in 1906. |
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Dynamometer cars were laboratories on wheels, used to guage how quickly locomotives used fuel and water and to measure speed, distance, and power. Data collected aboard the dynamometer cars were used by engineers of the North Eastern Railway and later the London & North Eastern Railway and British Railways, to design and build better, more efficient locomotives. |
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Dynamometer Car No. 902502 was used to document some of the most important record-breaking events in railway history, including the journey during which the Flying Scotsman achieved 160 km/h (100 mph) in 1934 and the 203 km/h (126 mph) speed record set by Mallard in July 1938. As such, No. 902502 itself holds the record as the fastest surviving steam-hauled railway carriage in the world. It was retired from service in 1951. |
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A wooden signal box dating from 1921 and used on the London & North Eastern Railway at Melton Siding. Signal boxes like this were situated across the railway network, from major junctions to wayside sidings. In 1948, there were 10,000 signal boxes in Britain, containing mechanical levers to control the signals and track switches. Modern, centralised network control centres now perform the work once carried out by lone signalmen working in cabins like this. The Melton Siding signal box is one of the smallest types of these structures, with its two-lever frame controlling the connection between the main line and the Humber Cement Works near Hull. This was a quiet siding that might have seen one train use the siding per day. Large mainline stations, such as York, would have had several large signal boxes to control the much larger volume of traffic on numerous tracks. |
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A six-lever frame used to control signals and track switches, now displayed inside the Melton Siding signal box. |
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The Class 76 EM1 electric locomotive, No. 26020, built in Manchester in 1951 for British Railways. The EM1s were equipped with two diamond-shaped pantographs which collected power through contact with an overhead wire. In the 1950s, electric locomotives replaced steam locomotives on the route between Sheffield and Manchester. This move cut travel time in half for the heavy coal trains used on this route. Moreover, electric locomotives made life much more comfortable for the train crews, as the men were no longer subjected to the suffocating fumes from steam locomotives when travelling through the poorly-ventilated three-mile long Woodhead Tunnel. The EM1 locomotive was designed by Sir Nigel Gresley and the first unit was built in 1941; however, the Second World War delayed the construction of electric wires until 1955. As construction work proceeded in the post-war years, the prototype EM1 was loaned to the war-damaged Dutch railways in 1947; the Dutch nicknamed the locomotive 'Tommy' to honour British soldiers. A total of 57 EM1s were built between 1950 and 1953. No. 26020 was displayed at the 1951 Festival of Britain and, after 26 years' service, was withdrawn in 1977. It is the only preserved example of an EM1 locomotive. |
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The iconic British Rail Double Arrow logo that was used by the company between 1965 and its disbandment in 1997. The Double Arrow logo was designed by Gerry Barney of the Design Research Unit consultancy and remains part of the branding for National Rail, the trading name of the Rail Delivery Group representing passenger train operating companies in England, Scotland, and Wales. In addition to the logo, the Design Research Unit created a coherent corporate identity for British Rail, including a standard corporate typeface and Rail Blue and pearl grey as the standard colour for all rolling stock. |
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A British Rail Class 84 electric locomotive, No. 84001. Built by the North British Locomotive Company in Glasgow in 1960, No. 84001 was one of 10 Class 84 locomotives manufactured and the only one preserved. The Class 84 were introduced in 1960-61 and were not deemed a success, being retired from service by November 1980; No. 84001 was withdrawn on 22 January 1979. |
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The Class 84 locomotives were one of five prototype classes of electric locomotives built during the early stages of West Coast Main Line electrification. They suffered from a number of technical problems and were placed in storage for lengthy periods as potential fixes were developed. Despite a rebuilding program for the 10 Class 84 locomotives, new problems emerged and British Rail decided to scrap the fleet rather than invest further money in rectifying the problems. |
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A diesel electric High Speed Train (HST) power car, No. 43002 'Sir Kenneth Grange', built by British Rail Engineering Ltd.'s Crewe Works in 1975. Designed by Sir Kenneth Grange for high-speed travel, the streamlined HST continues to hold the world diesel locomotive speed record of 238 km/h (148 mph), set on 1 November 1987. At a time when railways were beginning to be seen as outdated, the HST revitalised British Rail's image and led to a renaissance in rail travel. |
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The HST, also known as the InterCity 125, was a regular sight on Britain's railways from 1976 onward, despite being initially viewed as a stopgap until new high-speed railway technology was developed. Between 1975 and 1982, 197 HST power cars were built and many remain in service to this day with a impressive regular service speed of 201 km/h (125 mph). |
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No. 43002 was the first production HST and is painted in the original yellow and blue British Rail livery, which led to the HSTs being nicknamed 'the Flying Banana'. |
Below: Some of the National Railway Museum's extensive collection of locomotive name plates.
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A reproduction of a 1937 Southern Railway poster, 'Fresh Air for Health!' by H. Alker Tripp. The poster was part of an exhibit at the museum, entitled 'Go as you please', focused on travel by those with lived experience of disability, deafness, and/or neurodivergence. |
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The locomotive of a Japanese first generation (Series 0) Shinkansen high speed train, introduced in 1964 on the world's first high-speed rail route between Tokyo and Osaka. The Series 0 Shinkansen was designed by Hideo Shima and colleagues for West Japan Railways. |
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The Series 0 Shinkansen on display in the museum was built in 1976. It is the only Shinkansen train on display outside of Japan. 'Shinkansen' means 'new trunk line' in Japanese. |
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The streamlined design of the Shinkansen earned them the nickname 'bullet train' and the futuristic trains garnered much international attention. |
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Looking into the passenger compartment from the entrance vestibule. |
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One of the doors aboard the Shinkansen Series 0. Receptacles for trash and recyclables are on the right. |
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The forward right side entrance door on the Shinkansen and the door to the driver's compartment. |
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A view of the driver's position on the Shinkansen Series 0. |
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The passenger compartment on the Shinkansen Series 0, with seating in a 3-2 layout. The Series 0 trains could attain a speed of 209 km/h (130 mph) which was nearly twice the speed of traditional British steam trains. |
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The speed of the Shinkansen trains resulted in increased passenger demand, which in turn led to increased investment in high-speed rail and improvements in track technology, signalling, and electrical power systems. |
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In 1964, the journey time aboard a Shinkansen train between Tokyo and Osaka was just over three hours. Today's newest generation Shinkansen trains take two hours and 22 minutes on this route. Shinkansen routes have expanded across Japan to serve a number of cities. |
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A Class 373 Eurostar power car, built by GEC-Alsthom in 1996. The Eurostar trains are based on the French high-speed TGV (train à grande vitesse) train. To enable the Eurostar to run seamlessly across the British, French, and Belgian rail networks, each train has six signalling systems, eight power systems, and two radio systems. Even the name 'Eurostar' was selected to ensure comprehension in English, French, and Flemish. The Eurostar power car sits inside a replica of one of the circular concrete tunnel segments which form the Channel Tunnel between France and the UK. |
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The Eurostar holds the British rail speed record of 335 km/h (208 mph). Each part of the train contributes to this, with the power car picking up electricity from overhead wires and the track and sending it to the electric motors in the carriages. The Eurostar has proven extremely popular, with over 10 million passengers riding the trains every year between London, Paris, and Brussels. |
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A final look at the National Railway Museum's Great Hall. |