National Railway Museum – Vision 2025 by Anthony Coulls, Senior Curator of Rail Transport & Technology, National Railway Museum
Oh, the tribulations and challenges of managing collections! The National Railway Museum (NRM) has not perhaps had the best of press recently. In the enthusiast world there have been mutterings and groans. “Why is part of the York museum presently closed? Why is so much money and attention lavished on one particular locomotive - number 4472 Flying Scotsman, to the possible detriment of other locos equally historic but currently out of use? Why have certain engines been given to independent heritage railways?”
But as Anthony explained there is much going on. In the 21st Century, now well over half a century since the last BR steam loco ran in normal commercial service, the NRM has to cater for a completely different type of visitor. Today the museum has to appeal at ALL visitors, and not as previously to a supposed average teenage sixth form schoolboy (what about the girls – ed). It is a huge challenge and the effort must be made to present a ‘joined up and comprehensive story’ for those to whom railways may be an unfamiliar world.
As many RCTS members will know, preservation of historical railway artifacts goes back a long way to 1862 when the pioneer Liverpool and Manchester Railway engine “Rocket” was deposited with the Patent Office Museum which later became the Science Museum. For very many years though, in Britain, there was no systematic policy of conservation, and engines and rolling stock were saved in a piecemeal and haphazard way. This was partly due to the varied policies adopted by individual private railway companies - up to1923, the year of the Grouping, there were over 120 assorted such companies. In the vanguard of preservation was perhaps the North Eastern Railway, which opened its museum in York, subsequently taken over by LNER (London & North Eastern Railway) which collection eventually formed the nucleus of the National Railway Museum. The NRM itself opened in 1975. Several well-known locomotive superintendents of the past took little interest in saving historic machinery; both George Jackson Churchward of GWR, and his then Swindon pupil William Stanier actually ordered the scrapping of ancient historical stock, (most tragically the only surviving broad gauge engines) and later R A Riddles and O V S Bullied appeared similarly uninterested.
When the NRM first opened there was just one main building in the former LNER shed at Leeman Road, York. Not only has that site been substantially altered and extended, but there is now much building and rebuilding in progress. By 2025, 200 years after the opening of the Stockton and Darlington Railway, Anthony explained there will be no fewer than seven main buildings at York and Shildon. It is the Museum’s policy to have all artifacts in their control protected under cover, and not left outside rusting in the open as has happened in the past. The number of large exhibits such as engines and coaches, referred to as ‘vehicles’, now totals 267 which, if you placed them one after another in a long line, would extend to 2.3 miles!
As to how the Museum decides what is to form part of its collection, a ‘Five Pillars’ approach has been adopted:
- Telling stories with vehicles ‘in the right place’;
- A defined programme of acquisition;
- A sustainable transfer programme;
- A strict loan and maintenance policy;
- An ‘operative vehicle strategy’.
Stock in the “right place”? At Locomotion in Shildon, a new display hall will highlight the story of the freight which was handled in that former industrial area from the days of the coal mined at Hetton Colliery in 1822 and the Stockton and Darlington line (1825) to the more recent and now already redundant modern coal hoppers built at York in the 1990s. At York, Station Hall is presently being reroofed, which will house 80 exhibits when reopened in 2024. This is a listed building so the work has to be done correctly.
The NRM does not aim to collect ‘everything and anything’, though Anthony mentioned that eyes are being kept on the last working areas of mechanical semaphore signalling still in use in and around Worcester, and that there is a Class 91 electric locomotive in the custody of The Scottish Railway Preservation Society at Bo’ness. Though this is not yet an NRM vehicle, it is still an item designated for future preservation.
Sustainability is a crucial concept and items out on loan must be properly looked after and safely stored under cover. For example GWR 2818 is displayed at Steam in Swindon, while the Victorian LSWR express “T3” locomotive has been transferred to the Swanage Railway where Andrew feels it will receive much tender love and care and should soon be pulling passenger trains again. North Staffordshire (NS) locomotive Number 2 is now in the care of the Foxfield Railway in tandem with suitable NS carriages, a locomotive in the right place, doing the right thing.
Since the early days of the NRM, locomotives for which there was no display space have been loaned out. In 1968 a Hughes ‘Crab’ engine went to the KWVR and soon after the Great Central Railway’s (GCR) Butler-Henderson express locomotive was loaned to the newly opened GCR (heritage railway) at Loughborough. Nowadays the NRM has a roving representative called ‘Paddy’ whose role is to liaise with heritage railways and those currently operating and/or displaying loaned NRM items. Nothing is loaned on a permanent basis but normally for periods of between three and five years. If a “borrower” of an NRM vehicle decides that it is impossible to properly maintain their charges, the NRM will offer to take the item back. Anthony assures us that he and his colleagues “are always approachable- and we Do like Railways!”
Then comes 4472 Flying Scotsman? Why is so much money invested in her? She may not be everyone’s favourite locomotive but she is known worldwide, has become nationally important and the non-railway enthusiast public flock to see her. She is a railway celebrity. At a recent event at Kings Cross at which Scotsman was present, Anthony was impressed by the (non-enthusiasts) in the public, by the fact that Scotsman makes people smile and feel that railways are a good thing and spread a ‘feel good’ aura.
Of course, there has not been a lot of feel good atmosphere towards the railways recently due to the long series of strikes, timetable uncertainty, train cancellations, ever increasing fares and the passenger downturn following the covid lockdowns. And the political future of the national railway system remains uncertain. But Anthony gave the impression in his comprehensive and excellent presentation that despite all the changes and uncertainty there really is much positive thought for the future at the NRM, that the museum will continue to engage with the modern railway, that travel by rail will continue to feature hugely and that the NRM will be continue to be around telling the story of the railways to future generations in a joined up and entertaining way.
Questions were taken using the chat facility on Zoom and were dealt with equally well and included amongst other things: providing further explanation about the reasons for preserving some and not other vehicles and artifacts; the reasons for loaning some locomotives to specific heritage railways and museums; future plans for acquisitions; constraints in what can and cannot be done with regards to running locomotives especially elderly ones; where there might be other potentially interesting and important items for the collection.
(The presentation was changed from in-person to virtual, ‘swapping’ speakers because of the rail strike on that day affecting both the speaker and a number of regular members and guests who would have been unable to attend in person.)