The NRM at 50.

Station Hall is open again after refurbishment but the familiar entrance to the museum via Leeman Road is still closed while further work is being undertaken. The road itself is blocked off and for now visitors arriving by train and on foot have to make a fairly lengthy journey around the circumference of the site to access either Station Hall or the Great Hall independently, with no direct link between the two while work continues as the former underpass has also been closed off. This state of affairs is due to last until the grand reopening, which is planned for 2027. The rusting tracks outside Station Hall and heading towards it from the north west end of the site were another clear reminder of the motive power depot, 50A York North. Though they are now fenced off, I remember first walking along these lines in the early 1960s, now 60 years ago and 10 years before the museum first opened.

Arriving by car is no problem, as the car park is close to both of the current entrances, but without a shuttle bus to the centre of the city, anyone needing a lift is dependent on the tourist road train at £5 a go. Landscaping surrounding the site goes on apace and what has been achieved so far suggests that this is being well thought out by those responsible, with wide and clearly marked cycle and walkways already laid out. It’s worth noting that the refreshment area in the Great Hall is nowhere near as comprehensive a meal time offering as it used to be, during this period of transition.

I spent some leisurely time at the NRM this week, enjoying a peek around the North shed, where the amazing array of small exhibits used to be a bit more of a jumble than is now the case, with more consideration having gone into the subsequent arrangement. I found a large display case with a multitude of GCR-inscribed crockery from the railway’s dining cars, refreshment rooms and hotels, and all now over 100 years old.

I took a closer look at the royal and other carriages in Station Hall, all beautifully preserved and clearly described, though with so many locomotives to choose from in terms of display items, I thought it a little strange that they had chosen to include 2 examples of the BR[LMR] Blue Electrics.

The walls are adorned everywhere with steam locomotive nameplates, providing a fantastic collection of reminiscences, as well as signalbox boards galore. The imaginative and enterprising winning entries for the Young Railway Photographer of the Year were on display upstairs on the mezzanine level. First prize went to 18-year-old Dale Bristo from St Helens “for his striking and dynamic hyperlapse image of a Merseyrail Class 777, taken at Liverpool Central station on the underground Wirral line platform”.

I had a sit down in the comfy chairs at the entrance to Search Engine, the NRM’s extensive library and archive. Here, I watched 100 of the collection’s most interesting photographs arranged thematically and presented on a VDU loop.