National Railway Museum, York
Club Outing: Saturday 28th June 2008
After the proposed trip to the National Railway Museum was postponed twice and this being the third year it had been proposed at our AGM.
Bob Davidson suggested hiring a luxury coach and the trip finally got under way on Saturday 28th June 2008. With members, member’s relatives and member’s friends aboard, our hired ‘Birmingham International’ Bova 36-seater corporate luxury coach left Hobs Moat at 08:45ish with Steve the coach driver at the controls.
We headed along the A45 Coventry Road and on the M42 then on to the M1 and the A64 into York. Turning left after the railway station and under the railway line, we arrived at the museum coach park at 11:00.
On entrance to the museum we all headed to the turntable as a demonstration of how the turntable worked, was about to take place. Whilst most the party (and the rest of visitors to the museum) watched this, I took the opportunity to photograph the locomotives around the turntable without people in the way! After the turntable demonstration, we broke up and went our separate ways.
John Ross, Les Edwards and I were hungry by this point and with John’s guidance we headed for the café. After lunch we looked around the large collection of royal carriages and a variety of goods wagons in the museum’s collection. We had a quick look outside at D8000, the pioneering class 20 - diesel locomotive - with oval buffers and 31018 - class 31 diesel locomotive.
Les was now tired and announced he was going for a nap on the Japanese Bullet train back in the main hall. John and I - once Les was settled - headed for the ‘Warehouse’ where a large collection of artefacts where stored but although they were not really on display, you could still see them. Theses included mock up models of the Advanced Passenger Train (APT), class 60 diesel locomotive, class 150 (Diesel Multiple Unit – DMU) diesel passenger train and 165 (DMU) diesel passenger train to name but a few. There was also large collection of ‘London North Western Railway’ (LNWR) O gauge models. We then headed for the viewing platform of the East Coast Main Line approach to York station. After about half an hour of watching trains we decided it was time for a cup of tea and headed back for the café, picking up Les on the way. We headed back for the viewing platform again, pointing out certain things to Les on the way. After watching a few more trains going by it was time to start heading back to the coach. Going back via the workshop, we saw 4472 ‘Flying Scotsman’ and D200 (class 40 diesel locomotive) inside for overhauls.
On the return journey Steve our coach driver announced that he and his partner had been to York Cathedral and he had proposed there and his partner had said yes. Congratulations Steve.
www.nrm.org.uk
www.birminghaminternationalcoaches.co.uk
RAR.
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