The National Railway Museum

As promised, here are some more of the photographs I took when we visited the National Railway Museum (NRM) when we visited York in October this year.

Commonly known as the bullet train, this is the Japanese train properly called the Shinkansen. Starting with the line between Tokyo and Osaka in 1964, the high speed network now connects most of the major cities on the islands of Honshu and Kyushu, and also Hakodate on the northernmost island of Hokkaido, and runs at speeds of up to 200mph. The NRM say that this is the only Shinkansen train outside of Japan.

Another foreign locomotive is this China Railways KF, known in the NRM as the 'Chinese Engine'. It's one of 24 locomotives built in 1935 and 1936 in the United Kingdom by the Vulcan Foundry of Newton-le-Willows for the Guangzhou - Hankou Railway, and was presented to the NRM by the Chinese Government in 1981.

The former London, Midland & Scottish Railways 'Coronation' Class locomotive 6229 'Duchess of Hamilton', renumbered by British Railways as 46229. It was built at the LMSR Crewe Works in 1938 with the streamlined casing, as shown here, for which it was not originally designed. The streamlining was a hasty last-minute addition after the London & North Eastern Railway, LMSR's rivals on the London to Edinburgh run, had introduced the A4 Gresley Pacifics with the much more streamlined look. It was subsequently found that the streamlining caused problems for the drivers as it failed to lift the smoke from the chimney away from the locomotive thus interfering with the drivers' vision. This, together with problems of access for maintenance caused the casings for the whole class to be removed between 1946 and 1949. 'Duchess of Hamilton was withdrawn from service in 1964 and together with 'Duchess of Sutherland' was acquired by Sir Billy Butlin as playground attractions at two of his holiday camps the 'Duchess of Hamilton' going to the Minehead camp. The Friends of the National Railway Museum obtained the locomotive on loan in 1976 and eventually purchased it in 1987. It was a static exhibit at the NRM from 1998 and the streamlining was re-instated at Tyseley Locomotive Works between 2005 and 2009 after which it was returned to the NRM.

Great Western Railway diesel railcar number 4, renumbered by British Railways as W4W and used up to the 1960s when they were replaced by the first diesel multiple unit trains.

Together with 'Flying Scotsman' 'Mallard' is one of the most well-known steam locomotives in the world. It was one of the London and North Eastern Railway Class A4 Nigel Gresley designed Pacifics, numbered 4468 and re-numbered 60022 by British Railways after nationalisation. It was built at the LNER's Doncaster Works in 1938 and withdrawn from service in 1963. Its fame comes from the fact that on 3rd July 1938 it became the fastest ever steam locomotive by reaching a recorded speed of 125.88 mph which has (to date) never been beaten.

This is the dynamometer car which, together with six coaches, made up the train that Mallard was pulling when the speed record was attained. Dynamometer car 902502 was built in 1906 and remained in service until 1951.

Great Northern Railway Class C1 (small boiler) No. 990 'Henry Oakley' designed by Henry Ivatt, built in the Doncaster Works in 1898 and withdrawn in 1937. When taken over by the LNER the number was changed to 3990.

Great Northern Railway No. 1 Class, locomotive No. 1 designed by Patrick Stirling and known as the Stirling Single because of the single pair of driving wheels. It was built in the Doncaster Works in 1870 and withdrawn in 1907.

This is one of the huge driving wheels on the Stirling Single - the locomotives of this class had the nickname 'eight-footer' and the wheel is actually 8ft 1in in diameter.

Great Western Railway 4000 Class 'Lode Star', designed by George Jackson Churchward and built in 1907. It was withdrawn from service in 1951 and is the only one of its class to have been preserved.

This is what the National Railway Museum website says about the replica of Stephenson's 'Rocket':

'Almost everyone has heard of Stephenson's Rocket. George Stephenson and his son Robert, were amongst the very first locomotive engineers. They believed passionately about steam and used a pioneering boiler design to build this famous locomotive.
Rocket established the basic architecture for the steam locomotive. The main features were: a multi-tubular boiler, to improve the heat transfer from the firebox gases into the boiler water; the 'blast pipe' which used the steam exhaust to improve the air draught through the firebox; and direct coupling, by connecting rods, from the pistons to the driving wheels.'

The last steam locomotive to be built by British Railways was the BR Standard Class 9F no. 92220 named 'Evening Star'. When British Railways took over responsibility for running the rail network they inherited the locomotives and rolling stock from the four constituent companies, Great Western Railway, Southern Railway, London, Midland & Scottish Railway and London & North Eastern Railway. In addition to these British Railways built a further 2537 steam locomotives between 1948 and 1960, 1538 to pre-nationalisation designs and 999 to its own standard designs. Each of the BR Standard Classes was given a number from 0 to 9 that signified its power and a suffix of F or P to indicate that it was to be used for freight or passenger services. The Class 9F to which 'Evening Star' belonged was therefore the most powerful locomotive and designated to be used on freight traffic. Whilst the rest of the locomotives in that class were unnamed and painted black, 'Evening Star' was given that name and painted in the green livery that was normally reserved for passenger locomotives. It was designed by Robert A Riddles, former assistant to Sir William A Stanier at LMSR, and was built in 1960, serving for only 5 years before being withdrawn in 1965.

This locomotive is the only surviving member of 40 in the wartime austerity Southern Railways Q1 Class. It was designed by Oliver Bulleid for use on freight trains in the Southern Railways network during the Second World War and its unusual look is partly due to the lack of materials and the need to save weight - it doesn't, for example, have a 'running board' above the wheels. This is the first locomotive in the class which were numbered from C1 to C40 by Southern Railway and re-numbered 33001 to 33040 by British Railways. C1 was built in 1942 and withdrawn from service in 1964.

The controls of the Midland Railway 115 Class 'Midland Spinner'. Designed by Samuel W Johnson, it was built at Derby in 1897 and originally given the number 118. It was renumbered as 673 in 1907 and retained this number as a London, Midland & Scottish Railway locomotive, then was withdrawn from service in 1928.

'Gladstone' is the only one of the London, Brighton & South Coast Railway's B1 Class to be preserved. It was designed by William Stroudley and built in Brighton in 1882 with the number 214. Some locomotives of this class had been scrapped before the First World War, but 'Gladstone' and the remaining locomotives were passed to Southern Railway in 1923, 'Gladstone' was eventually withdrawn from service in 1926.

In several spots around the museum there are locomotive nameplates hanging on the walls, and this is just one of the examples. From the top the nameplates are from the following locomotives:

1. SR "King Arthur" class locomotive no. 742 "Camelot" (BR 30742) built 1919, withdrawn 1957.

2. SR "King Arthur" class locomotive no. 754 "The Green Knight" (BR 30754) built 1923, withdrawn 1953.

3. SR "King Arthur" class locomotive no. 805 "Sir Constantine" (BR 30805) built 1927, withdrawn 1959.

4. GWR "Star" class locomotive no. 4053 "Princess Alexandra" (BR 4053) built 1914, withdrawn 1954.

5. LMSR "Coronation" class locomotive no. 6221 "Queen Elizabeth" (BR 46221) built 1937, withdrawn 1963.

6. LMSR "Coronation" class locomotive no. 6222 "Queen Mary" (BR 46222) built 1937, withdrawn 1963.

7. LNER "A4" class locomotive no. 4492 "Dominion of New Zealand", (BR 60013) built 1937, withdrawn 1963.

8. LNER "A4" class locomotive no. 4491 "Commonwealth of Australia" (BR 60012) built 1937, withdrawn 1964.

9. LMSR "Coronation" class locomotive no. 6256 "Sir William A. Stanier FRS" (BR 46256) built 1947. withdrawn 1964

10. LNWR "Claughton" class locomotive no. 2222 "Sir Gilbert Claughton" (LMSR 5900), built 1913, withdrawn 1935.

There are three model railways in the museum and this is the main one, adjacent to the Shinkansen bullet train. I can confirm that it will keep young children engrossed for some considerable time. And older people too!

In the Station Hall is this 1967 painting of Waterloo Station by Terence Cuneo that measures almost 20 x 12 feet (officially 6 x 3.6 metres). I was aware that the painting was by Terence Cuneo, but I'd forgotten about his reputation for almost always including a small mouse in his paintings - which is just as well I suppose, or I'd have spent hours looking for it!

This is one of the power cars from the Eurostar trains that run between London and Paris & Brussels, and this is what the NRM says about it:

'From October 2015, visitors to the National Railway Museum will experience a new chapter of contemporary railway history when Eurostar Power Car Class 373/2 No. 3308 is installed amongst the famous locomotives in the Museum's Great Hall. The power car is a marvel of modern engineering, with operating speeds up to 186 mph (300 kph), and is part of the same series as the train that holds the UK rail speed record (208mph/334.7kph). It will take up its well-deserved place within the locomotive hall of fame having been donated by Eurostar.

The power car will be a permanent addition to the National Collection housed at the National Railway Museum, and represents a crucial stage in the ever-evolving phenomenon of high speed rail travel. Before it joins the ranks of the railway greats in the Great Hall, resident Museum experts will prepare it for this exciting new phase in its history.

The Eurostar Class 373 trains were designed to transport passengers between London, Paris and Brussels via the Channel Tunnel, and started operating on 14 November 1994. Since then Eurostar has revolutionised travel between the UK and mainland Europe, carrying a total of over 150 million passengers, with numbers growing to over 10 million a year.

Eurostar trains are capable of travelling from London to Paris in a mere two hours, 15 minutes and from London to Brussels in two hours.'

You can see all the photographs I took at the National Railway Museum in this Flickr Album:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/125734368@N02/albums/72157672089679324

York

Earlier this month we spent a week in York in the company of our eldest son Paul and his family who came over from Guernsey, and our youngest son David, who came across from the USA. here are a few photographs of the week.We stayed in an airbnb house on Bishopthorpe Road near the racecourse and only a few minutes walk from the centre of York,

Here we're crossing Skeldergate Bridge over the River Ouse, which was a toll bridge until 1st April 1914......

......and just around the corner is Clifford's Tower which was built in the 13th century, replacing the wooden tower that had been rebuilt in 1190 after the Norman tower built by William the Conqueror had been burnt down.

On the Monday we had a look round some of the shops in the Shambles area of York before visiting York Minster. (I don't know who the young lady is - I didn't see her until I uploaded the photograph!)

York Minster, the largest Gothic cathedral in Europe, absolutely enormous and apparently taking some 250 years to build. A fascinating place, with an interesting exhibition in the Undercroft, and I'll show more of the photographs I took there at a later date.

The following day we visited York Castle Museum, just behind Clifford's Tower, which is housed in prison buildings that were built in the 18th century on the site of York Castle, another of William the Conqueror's buildings. The museum includes Kirkgate, this reconstruction of a Victorian street named after Dr John L Kirk who founded the museum.

That day we had bought tickets for the York City Sightseeing Red Bus Tour which is a hop-on hop-off service round the city centre with a commentary about the places the journey was taking you past. Anna has another angle on this photograph.

The Red Bus Tour tickets are valid for 24 hours so we used them following day to go into the city, and this is one of the gates, or 'bars' as they are known, that we passed. There are four of these gatehouses around York and this one is Micklegate Bar.

Our first visit that day was to the National Railway Museum adjacent to York Railway Station and here's Edward at the controls of the ride-on Thomas the Tank Engine just inside the entrance to the museum.

The main part of the museum is the former locomotive roundhouse which consists of a turntable round which are arranged a series of lengths of track so that locomotives could be kept inside the shed but easily moved individually to the mainline track by means of the turntable. The first locomotive here is the ex-LMS 6220 'Duchess of Hamilton'. The streamlined casing of this locomotive, as with the other Princess Coronation class locomotives, was removed during the Second World War in 1944 for maintenance reasons, but not re-instated after the war. It's been a static exhibit at the National Railway Museum since 1998, and in 2005 it was decided to re-instate the streamline casing, the work being completed in 2009. Next to that is an ex-GWR Diesel Railcar - Number 4 - which was powered by a 130bhp 8.85 litre 6-cylinder AEC diesel engine. At the end is the famous ex-LNER 4468 'Mallard', the holder of the world speed record for steam locomotives at 125.88 mph. Again, I'll show more of the photographs I took here soon.

The National Railway Museum runs a frequent roadtrain service to and from the museum and Duncombe Place near the Minster, and here's Edward enjoying the trip after our visit......

.....and here's the roadtrain which I photographed a couple of days later in Duncombe Place.

After getting off the roadtrain we lunched in Nandos and this is Eliza enjoying a piece of corn on the cob. I know a lot of people like Nando's, but there was only one item on the menu that I could eat, and I found that caesar salad contaminated with peri-peri isn't a very appetising combination.

The next day we went to an out of town shopping centre which included a visit to a Toys R Us store where Edward was fascinated by a Star Wars character:

Paul, Edward, Eliza and Anna just before bedtime (but not necessarily sleep-time) for the children.

Friday morning it was a bit damp, but we went with Edward and Eliza to the nearby park and playground:

Later in the afternoon we had a last walk round the streets of York, and here's Uncle David with Eliza.

This was taken on the last day just before we left for home. By Edward. Not bad for a not-yet 4 year old.

Butler-Henderson and Others

These photographs were taken at an British Rail exhibition of railway engines at Central Station in Manchester in 1962.

This is the Great Central Railway's 'Butler-Henderson' (named after Eric Butler-Henderson, a director of the company), the only remaining example of the Improved Director (11F) Class locomotive. It was given the number 506 when built at Gorton in 1920 and when the Great Central Railway was incorporated into the LNER in 1923 it was renumbered 5506 (later 2660), then when British Railways came into being in 1948 it was again renumbered as 62660. It is currently shown on their website as being one of the National Railway Museum's locomotives but as being loan to Great Central Railway, possibly at Barrowhill Roundhouse.

The photograph below is of the Princess Coronation Class locomotive named 'Sir William A Stanier FRS' in honour of the designer, Chief Mechanical Engineer of LMS. Construction of this class started in 1937, although this particular example was built (at Crewe) in 1947, when H.G. Ivatt had taken charge, and was given the number 6256, being renumbered 46256 when it came under the control of British Railways. It was withdrawn from service in 1964 and has not been preserved.

The last photograph is of a class AL5 locomotive No. E3058. These were built in the early 1960s at Doncaster works and were used on the then newly electrified West Coast Main Line. When British Rail introduced a new computer numbering system in 1968 the class designation was changed to 85 and the locomotives were subsequently renumbered, this one becoming 85003. Fifteen locomotives, this one included, were then modified for freight use only and their class became 85/1, whereupon it became 85113. This locomotive was withdrawn in 1991 and subsequently scrapped, and only one of the original AL5 class is shown as being preserved (at Barrowhill Roundhouse) - E3061/85006/85101.

Thanks to Wikipedia, The National Railway Museum, and other websites for the information about these locomotives.