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Punch and Victorian Railway Poetry
We may think that today’s trains fail to run on time, but in the 19th century, stories of train unpunctuality and railway grievances were also common. Public complaints in newspapers reflected concerns...
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Bradshaw and the Victorians
In his popular television programme, Great British Railway Journeys, Michael Portillo uses Bradshaw’s Tourist Handbook to navigate the British rail network. However, Bradshaw was most famous for his...
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Railway expressions: ‘Hell on wheels’ and ‘Whistle-stop’
Lately I have been thinking about the ways in which the railways have entered our national consciousness. Lots of expressions we use today appear to have railway associations: ‘hit the buffers’,...
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New finds from the Wolverton Works archive
Hi, I’m Alison, Project Archivist at the National Railway Museum. For the next six months, I’m cataloguing the archive of Wolverton Works. Wolverton, located on the outskirts of Milton Keynes, was the...
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A warning to trainspotters (part 2)
Just a quick follow up to my posting of a couple of weeks ago on the trainspotters warning sign from Nine Elms locomotive depot. I have since managed to track down a series of photographs showing the...
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New finds from the NRM archives: Brunel and atmospheric railways
Whilst working on a recent cataloguing project funded by the Business Archives Council, I uncovered some fascinating new information about two key unresearched items in our collection. Reading through...
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Royal records from the Wolverton Works archive
As the Royal Wedding draws closer, it’s the ideal time to highlight some royal records from the Wolverton Works collection. The Works manufactured royal trains, including those preserved here at the...
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Beresford’s Combined Folding Lavatory and Writing Desk – Wolverton Works Archive
Take a close look at the drawing below and see what you think… The drawing is part of the Wolverton Works archive, and it was found during a recent session to catalogue engineering drawings that make...
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“Get him books not a bicycle!” – Victorian leisure in the Hackworth family...
I have just started a new project to catalogue the papers of the pioneering northern railway family, the Hackworths. The archive covers in detail the design and manufacture of early locomotives from...
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Can you read this letter? There’s a prize on offer if you can
Below is a letter from the Hackworth family archive. The letter is cross written, a technique that Victorians used to save paper and reduce the cost of postage. The Hackworth archive is full of letters...
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Listing a 4000-strong photographic collection
Over the last year a team of volunteers has been working hard to list a collection of approximately 4000 photographic prints acquired from the former North Eastern Railway Headquarters in York (now the...
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Railfest 2012: the little loco that gave a vicar “barbarous treatment”
This is one of a series of blog posts we’ll be bringing you in the run-up to our huge 9-day Railfest 2012 festival in June 2012. More blog posts about Railfest 2012 I’m Sarah Fellows, an Assistant...
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The human story behind a cabin trunk
In a previous blog I shared the story of Herman Booth and his cabin trunk. Earlier this week, I received a letter from Mr Booth’s relatives containing two wonderful photographs of the man himself....
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The Life and Career of Percy Wilson
This is one of a series of blog posts we’ll be bringing you in the run-up to our huge 9-day Railfest 2012 festival in June 2012. More blog posts about Railfest 2012 While doing research for Railfest...
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The National Railway Museum’s first ever smartphone app
I’m Cheryl Knight and I am an Interpretation Developer at the National Railway Museum. I have been lucky enough to spend the last few months working on a very special and exciting project: the National...
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Gentlemen prefer trains
Hi everyone – I’m Cheryl, an Interpretation Developer here working on The East Coast Time Line, the museum’s first ever iPhone app. A little while ago I promised to bring you some sneak peeks into some...
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Station Stories: Gateshead Railway Club
As part of our ongoing Station Stories project we visited Gateshead Railway Club in pursuit of stories. We met a group of former railway workers who’d started work as young lads in the 1940s and worked...
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Loco speedometers and track-destroying trains
Our library and archive centre is a busy part of the museum. Our visitor numbers show that we’re helping more researchers find the answer to their questions every year. But sometimes we’re contacted by...
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Railway romance, fun, and mischief: Station Stories
Hello. I’m Steph and I’ve been volunteering on the Station Stories project. I’ve really enjoyed reading and listening to all the stories people have submitted. I’ve selected some of my favourites so...
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The railway link to a 131-year-old shipwreck
In Search Engine, our archive and library centre, we receive many thousands of enquiries each year by letter and email. We get some fascinating questions, and one recent query was quite unusual, so I...
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