York

The National Railway Museum in York first opened its doors to the public in 1975 and although I was too young to remember, around five or six years old at the time, I think that I was quite possibly one of the first visitors to see this attraction. I do vaguely recall visiting here all of those years ago but my memory is very sketchy. I remember that my grandparents had saved up tokens from Kellogg's cereal packages that entitled us to free rail travel tickets and with this offer they took myself and my brother not only on a train for the very first time, but also to see lots of other trains too at the Railway Museum. I am sure that we must have done lots of other things whilst we were in York, but as I say it was over thirty years ago and I do not remember.

Last week I returned to the National Railway Museum for a second time. I would love to tell you how it has it has changed over the years but alas I cannot, so instead I will just tell you about how it is today, as per my recent visit of Wednesday 2nd April 2008.

If I was a train enthusiast then there is no doubt that I would have been in seventh heaven here, but I am not. My main reasons for visiting here was firstly because it is free and since it was during the school holidays we had promised to take the foster kids somewhere, so in many ways my visit to the National Railway Museum in York was a treat for the kids. It actually turned out to be great day out for us all.

This museum houses over a hundred different locomotives of national and international importance. In addition to this there is also a vast collection of other rail related memorabilia. To give you some idea of the size of this place it covers an area of 20 acres. I always remember from school being told that an acre was the approximate size of a standard football pitch so try and imagine twenty football pitches and that's about the size of this place.

The success of the National Rail Museum has been phenomenal and today it attracts around 750,000 visitors every year, more than any other British museum outside London. The museum is housed within the former power depot building of the main East Coast main Line directly adjacent to York's central train station.

At any one time this museum holds around a hundred locomotives out of the two hundred and eighty that form the National Collection. These other engines are hired out to other heritage museums throughout Britain but since most of these arrangements are usually for only a few weeks or months at a time this means that the locomotives on display at York is constantly changing. There are however a number of engines and carriages here that are on permanent display at York and these tend to include the most important items.

My knowledge of trains is not particularly good but I do know a little about Stephenson's Rocket, built in 1829 by Robert Stephenson. Until my recent visit however I actually believed that this was the world's first steam locomotive. In fact this was actually only the first commercially viable engine and the first steam driven locomotives had been built by Robert Trevithick as early as 1804. The earliest example of one of Trevithick's models that can be found at York dates from around 1815.

The Mallard is another train that I remember from my history lessons. Built in Doncaster in 1938 this is still the world record holder for the fastest steam train when it reached a speed of 126mph on the 3rd July 1938. The other world famous steam locomotive that can be found at York is The Flying Scotsman, built in 1823. This design revolutionised steam locomotives and such is its importance that it has a whole display and exhibition dedicated to it entitled "The Flying Scotsman Story".

Not everything here is steam driven nor indeed particularly old. There are some modern replicas of old steam locomotives including that of the Iron Duke but the steam driven locomotives only form a small part of the collection and there are many more examples of electric driven engines.

Amongst the newer trains is a Japanese Bullet Train, donated to the museum in 2001 by the West Japan Railway Company. This is one of the few trains in the museum that you can actually climb onto. Once aboard you can sit down and whilst seated watch TV footage of some of these trains in use in their homeland along with a short documentary about their design. This is the only example of a Bullet Train outside Japan and it was its arrival at the museum that helped the National Railway Museum to win the coveted European Museum of the Year award in 2001.

I found the Japanese Bullet Train fascinating, and a far cry from even the most modern trains that we find in Britain today. My favourite part of the museum however was the Royal Carriages. This section is entitled "Palaces on Wheels" and features carriages that once belonged to Queen Victoria, Queen Mary, King Edward V and even our present Queen. It is notable that the carriage on display that belonged to our present Queen, which was last used in 1977 is far less grand than many of its Royal predecessors.

Each of the Royal Carriages are displayed in area that has a red carpet that you walk on between the carriages and this certainly helps to add to the ambience. All of the carriages are fully furnished, many with their original artefacts which include wardrobes, beds and full bathrooms with baths. Whilst it is not possible to go inside these carriages there is an elevated viewing platform that allows visitors to obtain a good view inside.

The National Rail Museum is huge and it is certainly the sort of place that you need to spend around half a day in to see everything and fully appreciate it. The majority of the engines are displayed in two different areas. One of these is called the Great Hall and after looking around this I foolishly thought that I had more or less seen everything. I then discovered that there is another equally large area called The Works as well as further area with more modern 1970-1990's trains in sheds outside and even more trains in The Station Hall.

Outside there is a mini railway which looked great for the kids but the queues were so long that we decided to give this a miss. Facilities indoors include a restaurant, a cafe and a large shop. As I didn't use any of these I cannot comment on their prices or quality. There are also several toilet area, each of which are fully equipped for disabled visitors and have baby changing facilities. Upstairs there is a large archives section and library that is free to use but due to time restrictions we did not visit this either.

Overall I thought that this museum made for a great day out and I am surprised that it is completely free. I have certainly paid good money to enter attractions that are not a patch on this one.

The museum is open daily from 10am until 6pm.