I was working in Newcastle on Tyne last week and apart from some admin work my only task on Friday was the return home. I thought I'd take the opportunity to visit 'Locomotion; for the first time. This is an offshoot of the National Railway Museum at York situated at the heart of the birthplace of all the world's railways. Very close to the Stockton and Darlington railway and the early steam locos that were developed in the North east of England it has been built on part of the famous Shildon wagon works. This was the site of the famous cavalcade celebrating the birth of the railways back in the seventies. Still rail connected to the Darlington to Bishop Auckland branch it is a modern building. As you can see the weather was not great when I got there Immediately on entry was the famous Furness railway 0-4-0 No. 20. This loco has the unique status of having been built as an 0-4-0 tender engine, then being converted to an 0-4-0ST tank engine and then being rebuilt and restored back to a tender engine again At the complete other end of the spectrum British Rails Turbine powered 'Advanced Passenger train' with one of the first attempts to fit 'tilt technology' As I said the area was a hotbed of railway innovation 'Locomotion' which gives the museum its name was built in 1825 and was the first loco ever to pull a passenger train. It was built by George and Robert Stephensons company more early stuff soon Kev
Now you will all have heard of 'the Rocket' winner of the Rainhill trails but may not be aware that one of the losing locos survived. 'Sans Pareil' withdrew from the competition due to a cracked cylinder but amazingly escaped being scrapped far too fragile to run now a working replica was built in 1980 and features in quite a few railway history documentaries Moving on to 1847 and 'Cornwall' an LNWR 2-2-2 was one of the crack express locos at the time of its introduction and by 1892 LNWr practice was defined by the 'Precedent' class 2-4-0 'Hardwicke' one of the locos involved in the famous 'race to the North' battle between the East and West coast routes to Scotland more soon Kev
As the museum is part of the British Science museum admission is free with a suggested donation of £3. I gave them £5 before I asked if it was O.K to use a tripod, always helps to sweeten them up! i also made sure I got there at opening time before the parties of schoolkids arrived so got a clear shot of everything. Most of these shots were taken at 1 second exposure time using a remote. I mentioned the 'Railway race to the North'- on the East coast the North eastern railway used this high stepping M1 4-4-0 built in 1893 This would take over the train from this Great Northern (no, not that one!) 4-4-2 built in 1902 None of Sir Nigel Gresley's big pacifics were present on Friday but his V2 2-6-2 'Green arrow' was looking good. sadly two cracked superheaters meant it has been withdrawn from active service with no plans to reinstate it in sight Now happily, one of the most numerous class of locos preserved in the U.K is the LMS Black 5 4-6-0 designed by Sir William Stanier. 45000 was built in 1935 and is one of eighteen that still exist Kev
Sadly not much Great Western stock was in evidence but the Southern railway (no, not that one!) was with 34051 'Sir Winston Churchill'. One of Bulleid's brilliant but cantankerous 'Battle of Britain' class light pacifics. this loco became very famous when it hauled Churchill's funeral train in 1965. By chance the hearse van used to carry his coffin has also been saved Also displayed in the rolling stock section are two examples of the classic MGR coal wagon. Many of these were built on this very site and the first and last of the 11,162 examples were present No video sadly as nothing was running but interesting anyway Kev
