During our 2015 UK holiday I found opportunity to visit the National Railway Museum in York. A third visit, following those in 2009 and 2011.
1 I first visited the Station Hall which currently was dedicated to a display of royal trains. Impressive! I was sorry I did not have enough time to do this exhibition real justice.
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3 If I had a royal saloon like this, I would certainly look a lot happier ;-) But then again I'm not the king or queen of this country.
4 A "Gladstone" heads the royal saloon. The London, Brighton and South Coast Railway B1 Class, as it is officially termed, is a class of 0-4-2 express passenger steam locomotives, known from the name of the first, No. 214, as the "Gladstones". Built between 1882 and 1891 they were the last express passenger design of William Stroudley,
5 Most striking is the simple arrangement in the cab, and even more so the total lack of comfort for the crew. All-round air conditioning is standard and seats are deemed superfluous.
6 Another eye-catcher is this LMS "Crab" in the striking maroon LMS livery. Designed by George Hughes and built between 1926 and 1932, numbering a total of 245, these engines were soon nicknamed crabs. There are various explainations for this curious name. Some claim that the outside cylinders and valve motion resemble a crab's pincers. Others suggest it refers to the "scuttling" motion felt on the footplate when the engine is being worked hard producing a sensation that it is walking along the track.
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8 The strongly inclined and big cylinders
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18 Having little time to spare I soon moved to the Great Hall
19 As I hoped for, Churchill's funeral train was still on display. I always had a kind of admiration for the statesman but since I visited Chartwell (2011) this has turned into downright fascination if not admiration. Sir Winston died in 1965, this year fifty years ago and NRM commemorated this occasion by bringing in the namesake locomotive that pulled his funeral train and the car that carried his coffin.
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22 Churchill's family motto, meaning "Faithful though disinherited". One of Winston's forefathers was loyal to the king and lost his home and lands for it. He was honoured but not recompensed, hence the motto. Nobody has come up yet with an acceptable explanation why it is Spanish.
23 21C151 Winston Churchill is a Southern Railway Battle of Britain class 4-6-2 Pacific steam locomotive. It was built 1946 at Brighton. Originally unnamed it was officially named "Winston Churchill" in a ceremony at Waterloo railway station on 11 September 1947. Sir Winston was offered the chance to name the locomotive, but turned it down, claiming a prior engagement. Churchill became the only person to decline the opportunity to name a Battle of Britain class locomotive after himself. 34051 was withdrawn shortly after the funeral, having accumulated 807,496 miles (1,299,539 km).The locomotive has been preserved as part of the United Kingdom's National Collection.
24 The head boards (the white discs) where placed in the form of the a V for Victory
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26 No rodding for the valve gear. The Battle of Britain were provided with a chain-driven valve gear.
27 The cab's interior. Compare that to Gladstone's.
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29 The hearse was a Southern Railway 53 ft 3 in (16.23 m) Gangwayed Bogie Luggage van, no. 2464, which was built in 1931 as part of a batch of 30. It had been withdrawn from normal service in 1961, and was set aside and repainted into the Pullman cream and umber colours in July 1962.
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33 An unexpected encounter was with this beautiful lady. The museum had been shunting the collection around a few days earlier and I chanced upon "her" ...
34 ... on a rare moment I could get a classical three-quarter view of her basking in the sunlight!!
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36 Now, ain't she gorgeous? When this locomotive of the Coronation Class hit the metals in 1937 they caused quite a stir. It is easy to see why. That zenith was short-lived. Soon the gloom of WWII took over and their promise of high speed, high quality passenger service was never redeemed.
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43 This would normally be the firemen's view. It is almost beyond comprehension that they could maintain any form of safety with this little bit of sight ahead.
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45 This lady has beautiful legs, and you can stare at them without affronting anybody !
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51 I found this close up so graphical, I could not resist it
52 Take a look at the tight clearances between the various rods
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56 The lady wears a stunningly beautiful dress.
57 A feast to the eye. Once more this engine has impressed me greatly. It was hard to leave but time was running out.
58 On purpose or not. Squeezed in between the Duchess and the other sleek appearance on the left I found this warbaby Q1, as far as I am concerned to be nominated "ugliest steam locomotive of the 20th century".
59 Aaah, cute. The in-house works locomotive of the Crewe workshop.
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63 I visited another friend, squeezed between two giants of the rails.
64 A Fairlie. Admittedly a concoction of several other Fairlies, but a Fairlie it is!
65 I will be building a model of its sister engine Merddyn Emrys anytime soon
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78 Hugging my little friend
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86 Demonstration of the turntable.
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91 A King in the museum!
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94 Some views of the valve gears levers controlling the inside valve gear by actuation of the outside valve gear pistons
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100 The King was beside another celebrity
101 This locomotive was the first British engine to attain 100 mph (160 kmh) but this achievement is not uncontroversial as the timings were published only years later after the actual record run.
102 It is however a well balanced design, pleasing to the eye, where most 4-4-0's are pretty much an eye sore.
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109 Another record holder, this time for de world record for any steam locomotive, the fastest in the world, as far as officially recorded: 202.6 kmh (125.9 mph)
