European Railroad Discussion > Rail museums in the UK?

Let's play make believe: Let's make believe that you and I are in England - what rail museums should we visit? Any suggestions on how to get to them?

John Gezelius
Tustin, CA

Since no one else is yet doing this I'll start the long list: Swindon has a pretty sizable and well made railroad maintenance depot themed railroad museum.

For a funny (at the time not so funny) list of records I was still using film at the time visiting this museum. It turned out that the light that was totally acceptable and even bright for a human eye, was most unsuitable for the film, so I did not capture a single frame inside! _Everything_ was way underexposed. Supposingly with your digital camera everything works fine.

The museum at York. An easy trip from London. You can then take the Yorkshire Moors Rwy.

Isn't the York museum called "National rwy museum"?

Yes. And well worth a visit. But I prefer the numerous steam operating heritage lines where stuff actually runs. There are so many, you could spend an entire Summer and not see them all.

Here I must envy all the British railfans.


andersonb109 Wrote:
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> There are so many, you could
> spend an entire Summer and not see them all.

andersonb109 Wrote:
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> Yes. And well worth a visit. But I prefer the
> numerous steam operating heritage lines where
> stuff actually runs. There are so many, you could
> spend an entire Summer and not see them all.

At least one British railfan magazine publishes an annual guide to tourist railways, plus there is a long published "Railways Restored" booklet which is revised annually.

Most preserved lines publish a calendar, which shows days the line is operating, and also which days steam is operating. Many have "Gala" weekends, special events where several locomotives and additional trains are operated.

The Welsh narrow guage railways sell a joint ticket for most of the Welsh preserved narrow guage lines, a considerable savings over buying individual tickets for individual lines.

Many lines sell a daily "Rover" ticket, which allows for unlimited travel on the day of travel. They also sell tickets for individual trips. When there are multiple trains running, a "Rover" is handy because it allows you to stop over and catch a later train at an intermediate stop.

The preserved lines take trespassing along the line seriously. They risk losing the right to operate trains if unauthorised persons are seen along the right of way. Some lines sell a lineside pass to take photographs on railway property if you have hi-vis clothing and sign a liability waiver.

During the height of summer, many preserved lines operate daily, some of the others operate on weekends only.

Many counties and cities in the UK publish comprehensive (and free) tourist guides with transit and intercity bus schedules, plus discount coupons to area tourist attractions.

Most preserved rail lines have a web page.

By pre-planning a visit to the UK using various internet and published material, you can visit most of the various preserved lines, and take in the various historic sites and beauty spots.

I was lucky enough to make a visit to the York National Railway Museum in 2002;
nothing short of awesome. I remember a locomotive called the "Mallard."
It had set some sort of steam speed record; was built in an elegant, swoopy style
and painted in classic English colors. There was also a locomotive turntable, so well
balanced, it could be turned manually. For the kids, they have a full sized
Thomas the Tank Engine. Yeah, I know... (-:

The city of York, away from the museum itself, is worth a stroll around. There is
a gigantic Cathedral, the York Minster- built over Roman and Norman ruins.

The NRM has two sites. The main one at York which is right next to the railway station and "Locomotion" in Shildon,Co. Durham. There is the GWR museum "Steam" in Swindon - easy walk from the station and a shopping outlet next door!

Then there are the operating lines which are all over the country. They vary in a number of ways. Some are quite long, for instance the West Somerset from Bishops Lydeard (a bus ride from Taunton on the main line from London) and the Severn Valley from Kidderminster (which has a "proper" station) to Bridgnorth and Bewdley. The GWR Society at Didcot (en route to Swindon) has a constricted site but an impressive collection. Then there are the "Little Trains of Wales" which are narrow gauge and steam operated. It all depends what your interest is. I haven't counted recently but I suspect there are 70 or so spread over the country.

Of course the other thing to bear in mind is the steam that operates on the main line. You'll find them all listed on www.uksteam.info together with links to operator sites for bookings. While many of those operate as advertised they are subject to quite late confirmation/cancellation sometimes. Some of the steam operators also operate diesel hauled excursions some of which use heritage locomotives.

While Summer offers the best chance of finding something happening the last couple of weeks have seen steam excursions to Christmas Markets, Carol Concerts and the like and the operating lines run "Santa Specials". January and February (with the exception of Valentines trains) are the down times.

I live in Somerset. I get about 10/15 steam excursions along the 2 lines near me. The East Somerset Railway is about 10 miles away, the West Somerset is about 25 miles away, Swindon is a bit of a cross country trek on slow roads and takes me maybe 2 hours on a bad day. The Avon Valley Railway between Bristol and Bath is about 50 minutes. There's a private narrow gauge called the Gartell Light Railway about 10 miles away. The Swanage Railway runs from near Wareham to Swanage passing the ruins of Corfe Castle en route and that takes me about an hour and a quarter to get to. The point I'm trying to make is that my access is by no means unique, most of the country has similar access. And the good news is that if you're coming with people who aren't quite so railway oriented there's usually something for them to do nearby.

Now I'll go slightly off beam and suggest a visit to the Isle of Man. There is a narrow gauge railway, a narrow gauge electric tram which still uses the original vehicles from the 1870s and 1880s and another tram up Snaefell the highest point on the island which uses a Fell rail for braking. Last but not least a horse tram on the Douglas Promenade. It's a nice place to visit as well just be careful to check what else might be on at the same time - they run all sorts of special events to lure people to the island the biggest of which is TT week (Motorcycle Races).

john1082 Wrote:
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> Let's make believe that you and I are in England - what rail museums
> should we visit? Any suggestions on how to get to
> them?

To narrow it down, so to speak, I'd recommend concentrating on our sub standard gauge lines.

Let's start from London.

Forty miles to the north and about 30+ minutes by London Midland commuter train is Leighton Buzzard, home of the Leighton Buzzard Light Railway, originally built after WW1, using army surplus equipment, to serve sand quarries. It runs a range of locomotives, British, German and a splendid 4-6-0T from Baldwin, built for service in the trenches of WW1 it actually worked for most of its life in a sugar mill in India before being repatriated to Britain. http://www.buzzrail.co.uk/

65 miles south east of London is the 13.5 mile 15" gauge Romney Hythe and Dymchurch, running across Romney Marsh and built, in the 1920s by a motor racing enthusiast, Capt Jack Howey, as a 1/3 scale mainline. It operates 1/3 scale Gresley pacifics, 4-8-2 mountains also in the style of the LNER and two North American style pacifics. You can catch a Southeastern Highspeed Javelin EMU from St Pancras to Folkestone and then a bus from Folkestone to Hythe. http://www.rhdr.org.uk/

Then lets head west towards Wales, stopping off at Didcot for the Great Western Society's Railway Centre where there is plenty to look at even if steam isn't running. But our destination is Merthyr Tydfil, which we reach by taking a Great Western HST to Cardiff and then an Arriva Trains Wales MU up the valley of the River Taff. From Merthyr bus station we catch a 35 bus to Pant, a ride of a few minutes, for the Brecon Mountain Railway. This is a relatively new narrow gauge line, built on the formation of the standard gauge former Brecon and Merthyr Railway which BR closed in the mid 1960s. It operates a Jung 0-6-2T which used to run in Mecklenburg in Germany, a Baldwin 4-6-2 built for quarry work in South Africa and a Baldwin 2-6-2 from Brasil, all in the scenic sourroundings of the South Wales uplands. http://www.breconmountainrailway.co.uk/locomotives.html

After an enjoyable day on the BMR and an overnight in Merthyr we're up to catch the 07:30 X75 bus to Neath, the 08:35 Arriva Trains Wales Neath to Carmarthen and the 10:11 Arriva Cymru bus (route 40) Carmarthen to Aberystwyth, arrive 12:14. We should be in time for the afternoon (14:00) departure on the Vale of Rheidol Railway to Devil's Bridge and back. Another 2' gauge line it was inherited firstly by the Great Western in 1923 and then BR in 1948. It remained in BR's ownership until 1989 and is now owned by a charitable trust. Its locomotives were built not by an established manufacturer but by Davies & Metcalfe, whose brake components are still found under thousands of pieces of rolling stock. http://www.rheidolrailway.co.uk/index.htm

After getting back to Aberystwyth we are faced with a choice, the mountains of North Wales beckon and the giants of the Welsh narrow gauge scene - the Talyllyn and Ffestiniog, and the latters incredible Welsh Highland or, before we overdose on articulated steam in the mountains, there's the 30" gauge Welshpool and Llanfair to sample, so let's end the day on an ATW class 158 heading to Welshpool. The W&LLR was built to help agriculture in a remote valley in mid-Wales. Financially it was always a millstone for its owners, the Cambrian Railway worked it, the Great Western then acquired it in the Grouping in 1923, took off the passenger service in 1930 and ran it as an agricultural branch until BR decided the whole thing was an expensive anachronism (which it was) and closed it in 1956. But thankfully that was not the end of the story, the two locomotives (the only two the line had ever had - Earl and Countess) were stored but it was 1963 before the preservation society reopened the line from Llanfair to Castle Caereinion and 1981 before trains ran all the way into Welshpool again, but unfortunately the section through the back streets of the town was abandoned as the council wanted to use it for a road. There is talk today of restoring the line through Welshpool to the BR station, lovely if that was to happen but I suggest we don't hold our breath. Incidentally the GWR style coaches in the pictures on the website are replicas of the three passenger cars broken up by the GWR, the third was put into service either last year or this. They were built by the Ffestiniog Railway at Boston Lodge works. http://www.wllr.org.uk/index.htm

From Welshpool we retrace our steps to Dovey Junction from where our ATW train will take us to Tywyn, home of the world's first preserved railway, the 2'3" gauge Talyllyn, which has now been operating in preservation for over 60 years. Built to transport slate it was kept going through the deep pockets of its owner Sir Henry Haydn Jones. He died in 1950 and his widow kept the line running that summer but when the season was over in October that looked like the end. Thankfully it wasn't and today we can travel behind both of the original locomotives, 0-4-2T Talyllyn and 0-4-0T Dolgoch, built in 1864 and 1866 respectively. The most modern engine, number 7 Tom Rolt is another 0-4-2T and was built by the railway in 1991. The ride up the Valley to Nant Gwernol is delightful, and we ought to stop off at Dolgoch to see the Dolgoch Falls. http://www.talyllyn.co.uk/

Having paid our respects to the grand-dad of the railway preservation movement we now head further north for the piece de resistance, the 40 mile combined Ffestiniog and Welsh Highland Railway and their Fairlie and Garratt articulated steam power; we can spend a day just travelling from Porthmadog to Blaenau and back and then catch the afternoon train to Carmathen. Depending on the time of the year we may be able to return by train or we catch the X32 bus instead. We can then spend a further two or three days walking the lines, just shooting pictures. There isn't much these two railways don't have - amazing steam power, the most modern steam locomotive in Britain is 2-6-2T Lyd built in 2010, huge Garratts built for South Africa, including the last steam loco built by Beyer Peacock in 1958, Fairlies, both single and double, from 1877, 1977 and 1999, stupendous mountain scenery, a little bit of street running, a proper castle (Carmarthen) at the end of one line, the Pass of Aberglaslyn, the Cob, the Deviation and the Dduallt spiral. http://www.festrail.co.uk/main.shtml

I think after this odyssey we may want to take a break and buy a few more memory cards for our cameras.

How does that sound?

Learn from my mistake at York -
I budgeted (and enjoyed) my time well;
when my non-railfan friends picked me up, I found that there was another building across the street!
Apparently, that was where the Shinkansen and other delights dwelled. RATS!
...Lorenzo

If you have time in London the London Transport Museum is worth a visit. Not exclusively a railway museum but a good chance to understand the growth of public transport in London.

And don't forget the living museums - the grade 1 listed London terminals of Paddington, Liverpool St, King's Cross and St Pancras plus the major provincial stations at York, Bristol Temple Meads and Newcastle.

Here is the deal: I will be in York on 12/28. Anybody up for lunch, a pint, and some time at the museum?

John Gezelius
Tustin, CA

john1082 Wrote:
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> Here is the deal: I will be in York on 12/28.
> Anybody up for lunch, a pint, and some time at the
> museum?

I'll be at work :-(

cricketer8for9 Wrote:
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> If you have time in London the London Transport
> Museum is worth a visit. Not exclusively a railway
> museum but a good chance to understand the growth
> of public transport in London.
>
> And don't forget the living museums - the grade 1
> listed London terminals of Paddington, Liverpool
> St, King's Cross and St Pancras plus the major
> provincial stations at York, Bristol Temple Meads
> and Newcastle.

A quick, and personal plug, for Birmingham:

Curzon Street Station - Grade I listed - the oldest station building still standing, even though there is no station! It should be incorporated into the planned High Speed 2 terminus, however.

Thinktank Museum - Coronation Class pacific 46235 City of Birmingham in "as withdrawn" condition, including original ex-works paint. This locomotive will never be steamed again even though it would be theoretically possible, as the curators believe it is so unique it would be wrong to tamper with its original 1960s condition.

Tyseley Locomotive Works (only open occasionally, but well worth a visit)

Shakespeare Limited steam trains every summer weekend - mainline running to Stratford on Avon and back.

The restored 1908 Moor Street Station, complete with static GWR Churchward 2-8-0.

Regionally, the Severn Valley Railway is easily reached by train to Kidderminster. Other steam preservation lines are within a short drive.