National Rail Museum and Deltic engine

Cross-posted to model engineering and stationary engine newsgroups.

We had a delivery trip up north today, and a couple of hours to kill in between the last delivery and a collection in York, so we dropped the van at the southern Park & Ride and went in by bus to the Rail Museum. The bus drops you outside the main rail station, walk through the station, over the footbridge and though to the back and it's about a 5-minute walk.

Costs £2 per adult for the bus including parking, and the museum is free of charge, so apart from a mug of coffee and a roll, it was a very cheap visit!

The museum shop isn't bad for book material, but a lot of cheapy stuff for the kids spoilt it a bit.

The site has had major expansion since we were last there 15 or more years ago, and we spent over two hours looking round the site, and we did some serious walking.

There's a small miniature railway out the back, with a couple of small engines driven by Honda engines and a hydraulic pump with air brakes on the waggons. As there weren't many kids around, a load of adults got 'persuaded' to have a quick dash up and down on the train...:-))

Major museum items include the engines of course, but the 'Warehouse' section has to be worth a call, containing all the catalogued items that belong to the museum, stored in a warehouse in pallet baskets and stacked up with aisles to walk around it all.

Never seen such stuff out in the open, including some very nice models, most of which were protected by polycarbonate glazing so you couldn't photograph them very well but were clearly visible. Very interesting indeed and a treasure-trove to rail enthusiasts.

The Deltic engine was missing on our previous trip, but this time was fairly accessible and I took a load of shots of the exterior and sectioned parts. Also took a load of Evening Star's motion and valve gear, plus whatever else I could aim the camera at! ended up with 120+ pictures.

I'll stick some of the better pictures on the website by the weekend.

Peter

-- Peter & Rita Forbes Email: snipped-for-privacy@easynet.co.uk Web:

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