The Trains Run On Time! National Railway Museum At York

I was up for 7:45, a leisurely breakfast and down to the National Express East Anglia's Sheringham train station in time to catch the 9:45 to Norwich.  Off the train at 10:35 and across the platform for the 10:47 train to Peterborough via Ely.  Off the train at Platform 5 in Peterborough for 12:15 with a bit of a wait for the 12:47 to York.  We got behind a slower train which meant we were 12 minutes late in arriving in York at 14:07 instead of 13:55.  Trains do run on time in England.  The connections are timed almost to the minute.

Today we were travelling from Sheringham via Norwich and Peterborough to York.  Our purpose was two-fold - to visit the National Railway Museum, the largest railway museum in the world; and to take a trip to Knaresborough to try to find the birthplace of my great-great grandfather, Samuel Taylor.

Just in case you just got lost with all of the family connections, we've been chasing our roots on my father's side of the family (the Moore side) in the Sheringham/ Letheringsett area.  And we were down in Oxted and Woldingham to chase the roots on my mother's side of the family (the Bicknells and Peters).  And now we're in York to chase my father's side of the family but on the Taylor side - my father's mother (my grandmother) who was born a Taylor).  We'll visit Knaresborough tomorrow to see if we can find where Samuel Taylor was born.

In the meantime, on the final leg of the trip up from Peterborough, I was getting kind of peckish just as the tea trolley came through on the train.  I had no sooner got a sandwich and a cup of tea when the announcement was made that we were 12 minutes from our destination of York.  I quickly wolfed down the sandwich (not good) but saved my tea until I got off of the train.  I managed to get off the train with my carry bag, laptop and cup of tea where I sat down at a bench on the station platform to drink the tea.

 I removed the plastic lid and swung it away so that I could put the cup to my lips.  Only I forgot that the teabag was attached to the lid.  Swoosh!!!  A cup of tea all over my shirt, pants and me.  Soaked to the skin.  So much for the cup of tea.

I made my way out of the York station and quickly remembered my way across the train bridge (there's a footpath alongside the bridge) and up the street to the Tree Tops B&B.  Checking in and leaving my stuff in my room, I made my way back to the train station, across the pedestrian bridge to the west side of the train station and into the National Railway Museum. 

The Museum is comprised of two major parts  - the Station Hall and the Great Hall.  Actually, the Station Hall is really the goods hall (what we would call the "freight shed), where lwl (less-than-wagon-load) parcels were received/ unloaded/ trans-shipped into goods wagons (freight cars) to be shipped to other destinations throughout the railway network.  With 6 tracks right into the middle of the building, it resembles an olde-time railway station complete with the smells of stale grease, steam, coal, and 1920's music playing in the background.  It's also where one of the Museum's restaurants is located - right on a station platform in the middle of the royal coaches that transported the kings and queens of England.

Except that this building was never a railway station that the public ever saw.  It was a place where parcels and freight was sorted and loaded onto freight cars (goods wagons).  So after a "fizzy drink" and some goodies, it was time to explore the Station Hall. 

In addition to the royal coaches, the Hall has two tracks of the different goods wagons that saw service on British railways.  Plus two beautiful steam locomotives that shone.

 That was in addition to a number of static and audio-visual displays.  I particularly liked the 1955 movie clip of the voyage of a gondola through the repair shop.  Hard to believe that these kinds of wood and steel wagons were still running in large numbers on British rails.

From the Station Hall we moved through the main gift shop over to the Great Hall.  The hall is built around a 24-stall turntable that still works.  This allows the Museum to stack over 3 dozen locomotives into the hall.  The hall was originally the shop where steam locomotives were serviced.  The turntable still works.  From time-to-time, the locomotives are moved around or replaced with other locos.  Here's a 300-degree panormic view that I stitched together from a series of photos.

I also made a short 360-degree video which I'll upload as soon as I figure out how to do it.  As you can see, the Great Hall is appropriately named.

At 4:10 there was a presentation on how a steam locomotive works.  While it's old-hat to me, it never ceases to amaze me how the Museum has cut into the side of a steam locomotive to lay bare the inner workings of the machine.  It's hard to believe that all of these complex parts came together to make an iron monster like this move at such speeds pulling such large tonnage.

The Museum has a separate store for those afficionados of Thomas The Train ranging all the way from the wooden railway to the books and videos, clothing, hats, shoes, and puzzles. 

The rest of the time I spent browsing the different locomotives, reading the plaques and re-orienting myself to the specific items I may want to look at tomorrow.

As the Museum closes at 6:00, I then made my way through the downtown and over to The Shambles.  This is a narrow street that has been unchanged in over 500 years.  One could even reach out of the upper windows and jump across to the neighbour across the street. (More about The Shambles tomorrow.) 

From there, the York Minster is just around the corner.  By this time it was getting past 7:00 so I picked up a small pizza and made my way back to the B&B without getting lost along the way. 

Tomorrow is another day as we make our way to Knaresborough and back to the National Railway Museum.