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 'Duchess of Hamilton was withdrawn from service in 1964 and together with 'Duchess of Sutherland' was acquired by Sir Billy Butlin as playground attractions at two of his holiday camps the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