York and the National Railway Museum

[sally_maria]

Even though I'm no longer involved in the Tolkien Society committee, I still try to get to the AGM weekend every year. It's a great excuse to spend the weekend with friends, often listen to an interesting speaker at the Annual Dinner, and visit a new and interesting town/city. (There are so many interesting places I would probably have never got round to visiting if it wasn't for the TS.)

This year it was York, and while I'm sure I would have visited more of the city if it wasn't for the stinking cold I've been fighting, I did get to see quite a lot of the centre, including the Shambles, the Minster, the Yorkshire Museum and of course, the National Railway museum.



(Click through for more pictures.)

Flying Scotsman fever has of course seized the museum, as it has the country - there are a lot of interesting presentations of the history of the FS express service, which existed long before the steam locomotive bearing the name, and the media and publicity attention it had from the very beginning.

(I must admit I'm more of a GWR fan - and my discussion of the exhibits included pointing out the model of City of Truro - which did 100mph long before that LNER upstart. ;-D)

On Sunday morning I went round with a group from the TS, and demonstrated that a little learning is a dangerous thing by attempting to explain various railway related things. I was obviously speaking too loud, as I was pounced on by one of the museum volunteers, who wanted to talk me into joining them. *blushes* Still, it was a good visit, and I was pleased to find Mallard, and a Royal Mail sorting carriage, which I missed the first time round.

Comments

[elisi]

Awww, you're making me nostalgic now. We used to live in York, and going to the Railway Museum was always a nice way to keep the kids entertained (they were little back then). Also there was a proper playroom which was *brilliant*. :)

If you ever find yourself in York again, and have time on your hands, I can recommend the Castle Museum. That'll easily take up several hours.

[sally_maria]

Yes, I can imagine it would be a good way of keeping children out of mischief. :-) York is a lovely city, and with a lot of interesting things to see.

I shall certainly bear that in mind about the Castle museum.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Barley Hall is always well worth a visit, too.