Uncategorized

Historian Mike Esbester reveals the background to a collaborative project between the National Railway Museum and the University of Portsmouth. On November 10 1913, at 7.30 in the evening, casual porter Herbert French was putting sheets on wagons in the North Eastern Railway’s goods warehouse in York. The wagons moved unexpectedly, catching French – though, …

The cost of working on the railways? – National Railway Museum blog Read More »

Journey back in time to discover how railway companies tried to compete with road travel in the early 20th century. Hi everyone – I’m Cheryl, an Interpretation Developer here working on The East Coast Time Line, the museum’s first ever iPhone app. A little while ago I promised to bring you some sneak peeks into …

Gentlemen prefer trains – National Railway Museum blog Read More »

Repainting might sound like one of the simpler stages of restoring a loco, but there are a lot of specialist skills involved. In this guest post, Ian Hewitt from Heritage Painting, the great team who cosmetically restored Mallard and Dwight D. Eisenhower, explains the painstaking process. In spring last year we were asked by the …

How to paint the world's fastest steam loco – National Railway Museum blog Read More »

Curator Bob Gwynne travels back in time and across the pond with Flying Scotsman. In 1970, a 21-year-old Joseph (Joe) Petric was President of the North Western Illinois Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society and living in Joliet, Illinois. One of the major railroad stories of the previous year had been the visit in …

The long and winding (rail)road – National Railway Museum blog Read More »

Volunteer Malcolm Timperley reveals what happened after locomotive Sir Ralph Wedgwood was damaged in an air raid during the Second World War. In the early hours of April 29th 1942, York suffered its heaviest air raid of the War – 94 people were killed or fatally wounded. The railway facilities, being a crucial strategic transport …

Scribbling on A4 – National Railway Museum blog Read More »

As part of our ongoing Station Stories project, we’ve been visiting different railway locations in search of stories. At Gateshead Railway Club, the team working on our Station Stories project met a group of former railway workers who’d started work as young lads in the 1940s and worked together through to their retirement. The lads …

Station Stories: Gateshead Railway Club – National Railway Museum blog Read More »

The second of three updates about the ongoing refresh at Locomotion. In the first blog post of this three-part series I mentioned that I would write a second instalment to update everyone on progress made during the project. Well, I’ve finished the research and a lot of the writing, so it’s time for the next …

Revealing the stories behind the most popular railway periods – National Railway Museum blog Read More »

The staff in Search Engine at the National Railway Museum have unearthed some weird and wonderful “facts”—enjoy! As part of “getting to know the collections”, staff in Search Engine (the National Railway Museum’s library and archive centre) come up with a Fact of the Day that they then circulate to the rest of the team. …

Get in shape for the summer – the 1926 railway way – National Railway Museum blog Read More »

Tim Else talks us through the Alan Jackson Index project, which is now available online. For those readers not familiar with the Alan Jackson Index, the resource comprises a significant collection of reference cards containing information on a multitude of railway-related subjects, alongside boxes full of associated clippings. Jackson created his index over the course …

A labour of love: an update on the Alan Jackson Index – National Railway Museum blog Read More »

Photographic Archives Volunteer Nick has found some intriguing images in a collection covering the Nidd Valley Light Railway. The National Railway Museum’s photographic archives include a large collection of about 890 images by Humphrey Household (1906-1986), who photographed many types of trains and railways all over the country (and some overseas) from the 1920s. He …

In pictures: Constructing the Scar House Dam – National Railway Museum blog Read More »