Museums & Music

National Railway Museum, York

On a family trip to York, my younger brother wanted to visit the National Railway Museum. Now, as much as I love museums, I wasn't too stoked about visiting a museum full of trains and neither were my parents. Dropped off outside the museum, I was left as museum chaperone for the day. 

I have to say, the exterior did not excite me, instead it seemed to prepare me for a long boring day trudging around after my brother. We entered and left a donation (the museum is actually free admission) and were handed a map and a list of the day's activities by some very friendly staff members. We arrived in the Great Hall and almost immediately my preconceptions were proved wrong. Just the shear size and array of trains on display are enough to impress even if, like me, you know nothing about the history of trains.

The huge space that the objects are housed in helps to convey a sense of majesty and grandeur. Beautifully conserved and displayed, there is plenty of information on each train and many have elevated platforms for easy access to peer inside the driver's cab and carriages.

With a collection containing over 1,000,000 objects spanning 300 years of railway history it is easy to see why the visitor may get confused but it's safe to say that the use of space is utilised so well that you hardly notice that you are seeing so much in such a small amount of time. From a replica Stephenson's Rocket to the Eurostar and Japan's high speed bullet train, the National Rail Museum covers every aspect and delivers something for every visitor. We visited during the school summer holidays and the whole museum was very busy, especially with families and children. Even with the large amount of visitors on this day, the only crowded spaces we found were the gift shop and the cafes.

Station Hall is situated in a building across the street, accessible through an under-road tunnel. Station Hall was built in the 1870s and was once home to York's main goods station, functioning for nearly 100 years. The visitor is completely transported to a station of the past surrounded by classic station objects, celebrated Royal trains and impressive historic installations. 

In the center of Station Hall, with the impressive backdrop of the Royal trains, is The Dining Car Restaurant. A beautiful space where you can eat your lunch in a recreated Victorian lounge area or your very own traditional 'dining car' booth. This area was so beautiful and the perfect place to stop for lunch in this historic setting, we were really disappointed that we had already eaten lunch in the more modern (but equally lovely) Mallard Cafe in the Great Hall.

The National Railway Museum also offers some surprises along with the more typically expected engines and carriages. When I visited, the Gallery housed a beautiful photography exhibition covering industrial work spaces and employees. This lovely collection from a variety of photographers created a very artful area alongside the physically industrial space of the Station Hall and Great Hall.

One other surprise for me was The Warehouse; a lovely area that houses over 700,000 of the museum's objects displayed in an eclectic cabinet of curiosities layout. The visitor can spend hours just perusing the thousands upon thousands of objects ranging from chairs and train models to stained glass windows and the Platform 9 ¾ sign from the Harry Potter movies. Even though some may find the scattered display hard to stomach, I found it highly entertaining and could easily visit the museum again just to visit the Warehouse.

Overall, The National Railway Museum York, completely shattered my expectations and taught me not to judge a museum by it's cover! As a visitor with no previous knowledge of trains or railway history, I left feeling happy and educated and because of this I highly recommend a visit, it may change your mind too!

On a side note; I loved the mini-train which runs at regular intervals between the museum and York city center for a small fee. Especially what we needed on a rainy northern day!