National Railway Museum
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- This article is about the British National Railway Museum. For other national railway museums see National Railway Museum (disambiguation)
The National Railway Museum (NRM) in York forms part of the British National Museum of Science and Industry.
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[edit] Overview
The NRM contains a collection of over 100 locomotives and nearly 200 other items of rolling stock, together with many hundreds of thousands of other items of railway historical interest (down to a lock of Robert Stephenson's hair) displayed in three large halls of a former motive power depot next to the East Coast Main Line, near York railway station. The permanent display includes "Palaces on Wheels", a collection of Royal Train coaches from Queen Victoria's early trains to those used by Queen Elizabeth II up to the 1970s. A balcony overlooking York railway station hosts a set of monitors showing live feeds from the monitors at York IECC.
The NRM was established on its present site in 1975, when it took over the former British Railways Collection located in Clapham, and the York Railway Museum located elsewhere in the city, since then the collection has continued to grow. It is now the largest museum of its type in the world, with 750,000 visitors annually.
All items of rolling stock exhibited either ran on the railways of Great Britain or were built there, with the single exception of a Japanese "Series 0" Shinkansen bullet train leading vehicle, which was donated to the NRM by the JR West railway company in 2001 and which now forms part of an award-winning display.
A "roadtrain" runs from the city centre (near York Minster) to the museum on Leeman Road; otherwise it is a 20-minute walk. Admission to the museum is free.
Locomotion - the National Railway Museum in Shildon was opened in 2004 in County Durham due to lack of space at York to house a growing National Collection.
[edit] Image Gallery
The Yorkshire Wheel |
Class 31 No. 31018 - On display in the great hall |
A "Bullet Train" of the type on display at the NRM |
Hogwarts Express visits the museum in 2004 |
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- NRM website
- National Railway Museum on Placeopedia
- Map sources for the National Railway Museum
- Photo essay on museum's displays
Categories: Heritage railways in England | Rail transport in Great Britain | Railway museums in the United Kingdom | Visitor attractions in North Yorkshire | York | Museums sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport | Museums in England | European Museum of the Year Award winners | 1975 establishments
