Room of Requirement

A part of the National Railway Museum that I have never seen before. It started out as a Flying Scotsman exhibit and then turned into a warehouse of stuff. It reminded me of the Room of Requirement at Hogwarts – where you go to hide something. There were model trains, model boats, model trains, badges, bits of signals, model trains, platform signs and model trains.

As I looked around at all the platform signs, I thought it was a real shame there wasn’t a 9 3/4 sign. Then when I looked down as we were leaving, I saw it. (If you missed it, it is in the top photo in the corner.) A nice touch.

The Mallard

If there was one place that defined my childhood, it was York. And if there was one place in York, it would be the National Railway Museum. It was just a magical place to visit as a kid. The highlight was always this beauty, the A4 class LNER 4468 Mallard.

Just a beautiful piece of design from a different age. The Mallard holds the world speed record for a steam locomotive and rests gracefully at York’s Railway Museum.

I would never describe myself as a real train geek, but The Mallard is one I’ve loved since being a kid, even more than the more famous LNER 4472 Flying Scotsman.

Of course, being older, I’m a little more nostalgic about what the train actually represents. We Brits tend to regard the days of steam trains as a time when Britain had a bit of greatness left in it. I think that’s probably true, though I also think there’s a bit of rose tinted glass in there too. Still It’s hard to look at Britain’s modern railways without a sense of regret.

At least we can be nostalgic, thanks to the National Railway Museum.