The national railway museum has sites at York and Sheldon in the UK. They have over 300 years of history and over a million wonderful objects. The national railway museum was opened in 1975 at Leeman Road in York. Here are just a few of the wonderful locomotives I have photographed while there......Enjoy.
4 - SUB ELECTRIC MOTOR COACH.
No 8143, 1924. Southern Railway.
This electric motor coach was one of the first newly built electric units for the southern electrification. Previous vehicles had been conversions from formerly steam hauled carriage stock. From its formation in 1923 the southern railway rapidly expanded its outer suburban electrification in an attempt to prevent extensive competition from underground railways. The southern system used the live third rail direct current system, pioneered by the London and South Western Railway in 1915. Electric current at 650 volts DC was picked up from the live rail by the motor coach. The vehicle displayed was the driving motor coach of a four car suburban set, later classified as a 4 - sub. It ran on the southern region of British Railways until 1962.
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D5500.
On 13th November 1957 the 10-36 hrs London Liverpool Street to Clacton service began. Its journey without a whiff of steam. In charge was D5500, the first new main line diesel locomotive on British Railways Eastern Region. There was no ceremony to mark the event, but for British Railways and Brush Traction Ltd this was an important day. D5500 was a product of the 1955 modernisation plan, launched by British Railways with the aim of putting them back in profit. The plan aimed to modernise the system and included provision to replace steam with diesel and electric locomotives.
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EVENING STAR.
Evening Star was the last mainline steam locomotive built in Britain and in honour of this occasion British Railways Swindon locomotive works made sure it was given special treatment. Evening Star was painted in passenger green, its external pipe work made of copper and brass and its double chimney given a copper cap. Evening Star cost British Railways £33,500 to build, British Railways planned to use Evening Star for at least twenty years, in fact it was withdrawn from service in March 1965 and has been in preservation ever since.
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ELLERMAN LINES, 1949.
Express passenger tender locomotive 4-6-2 no 35029, British Railways.
Ellerman Lines was completed at Eastleigh Works near Southampton in 1949 by British Railways but to the design of former southern railway engineer Oliver Bulleid. The locomotive was the penultimate of the Merchant Navy Class which took their names from shipping lines using the port of Southampton. Although speedy and powerful the merchant navy class proved heavy on maintenance and were rebuilt in a more conventional form from the mid 1950s onwards. Ellerman Lines although officially described as being built for mixed traffic, the merchant navies were in fact main line express locomotives which worked such trains as the `Golden Arrow` and the `Atlantic Coast Express`. Ellerman Lines was withdrawn from service in 1966.
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PORT CARLISLE DANDY CAR, 1863.
This is one of four horse drawn dandy cars built by the North British Railway at its St Margaret's works in Edinburgh. The North British, one of Scotlands major railways, operated the branch extending from Carlisle to Silloth and its sub-branch to Port Carlisle. Freight services on the latter branch were discontinued as early as 1899, but a horse drawn passenger service instituted in 1863 remained until early 1914, when it was finally superseded by steam.
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DYNAMOMETER CAR 1906. No 902502.
This dynamometer car was built in 1906 by the North Eastern Railway and was used extensively by the NER and after 1923 by the London and North Eastern Railway, coupled directly behind the locomotive. It was the car used to record the performance of the steam locomotive Mallard on its speed record breaking run in July 1938. Dynamometer cars were used to measure the performance of locomotives. The data obtained was applied to improvements in design and was used to prepare and improve train schedules. Dynamometer car No 902502 remained in service until 1951.
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PASSENGER TANK LOCOMOTIVE, 1889, 2-4-2T No1008.
Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway No 1008 was the first locomotive to be completed at the company's works in Horwich near Bolton and is the only British standard gauge 2-4-2 tank engine preserved. Between 1889 and 1911, 330 locomotives of this design were produced by the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway for use with passenger trains over steeply graded lines. The locomotives were fitted with special kind of water scoop ( unusual in a tank engine ) which operated in both directions and allowed them to pick up water from water troughs between lines without stopping. During the construction period the design was progressively enlarged on the same 24 foot 4 inch total wheelbase to give the engines greater fuel and water capacity. No 1008 was numbered 10621 by the London, Midland and Scottish Railway in 1923 and 50621 by British Railways in 1948. It was withdrawn from service in 1954 after a working life of sixty six years during which time it was scarcely altered in any way.
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GOODS TENDER LOCOMOTIVE 1846, 0-4-0 No 3.
Furness Railway.
No 3 is the oldest locomotive in the National collection with inside cylinders. Inside cylinders that is cylinders placed between the engine frames, were used in Britain from the 1830s to the 1900s. They were more fuel efficient than outside cylinders because they were kept warm by the boiler and their position inside the frames assisted the overall stability of four wheeled locomotives. The weakness in using inside cylinders lay in the crank axle needed to drive the wheels. In the early days of locomotive building, crank axles were difficult to manufacture and tended to break. Bury designed the locomotive with iron bar frames rather than iron plates to give additional strength. The locomotive also has Bury`s typical hemispherical copper covered dome over the whole of the firebox end of the boiler. This gave rise to the locomotives popular name `coppernob`. The locomotive was built by Bury, Curtis and Kennedy of Liverpool in 1846 to haul iron ore and slate from the mines of the Lancashire/Cumberland border to the sea at Barrow in Furness. Coppernob was withdrawn in 1898, it was displayed at Barrow station and subsequently at the National Railway Museum, York since 1975.
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BULLET TRAIN.
West Japan Railways Shikansen Bullet train 1976.
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DUCHESS OF HAMILTON.
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AMBULANCE TRAIN CARRIAGE ( FIRST WORLD WAR )
Ambulance trains carried millions of sick and injured soldiers to safety throughout the 1914 - 1918 conflict.
A ward.
A pharmacy.
Nurses mess room.
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QUEEN MARY`S SALOON.
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REPLICA OF STEPHENS ROCKET.
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ROYAL CARRIAGES.
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ROYAL MAIL COACH.
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KING`S OWN YORKSHIRE LIGHT INFANTRY.
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UNITED DAIRIES MILK.
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V.R. POST OFFICE VAN.
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EUROSTAR.
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VIEW OF NATIONAL RAILWAY MUSEUM WORKSHOPS.
The locomotive A4 Pacific Sir Nigel Gresley can be seen undergoing its ten year overall.
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