Bringing old railway memories back to life

When the National Railway Museum opened in a former locomotive depot at Leeman Road in York in 1975, it immediately steamed its way into the hearts of the public.

Now it is set to capture visitors’ imaginations all over again by bringing tales of travel, romance and intrigue to the city in a new exhibition which will invite people to share their real-life railway stories.

The exhibition is part of a £1.3m redevelopment of the museum’s Station Hall, the first stage of the project being unveiled to the public on Friday.

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It is the first significant investment in the hall since the Great Railway Show opened in the building in 1990.

Focused on showcasing the human side to railways, visitors will be asked to share their station memories, as well as donate old suitcases and goods’ boxes, which will eventually be displayed in the hall – helping to create a busy station atmosphere.

The interpretation manager at the museum, Joe Savage, 31, said: “It’s one of our big exhibition halls and it’s a former railway building – it’s incredibly atmospheric. We are making it an interactive space where we display stories about travel and romance.

“The thing about stations is they are the human face of railways. They are the space where most people have been, where the city comes into the railway environment.

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“There are lots of stories people have from the past about places they have been or events that have happened to them in stations, it makes the whole thing an exhibition about people rather than machines.”

Mr Savage detailed one stand-out incident during the Second World War. A woman received a note from her soldier husband telling her to meet him under a station clock upon his long-awaited return.

“Of course every soldier on that train had told their partners the same thing,” he laughed. “When she got there it was just a sea of khaki so she had no idea which one he was.”

The first stage of the three-phase redevelopment has seen the removal of a number of old exhibitions, the repositioning of a number of trains and the introduction of new vehicles –including an Upstairs Downstairs-style Royal staff carriage.

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“At this stage we have got a real sense of what it’s going to become when it’s completed next summer,” said Mr Savage. “We have only just started really but it is already beginning to take shape.”

The next stage of the project will include the creation of a new entrance route into Station Hall and the installation of ramps to improve accessibility around the hall and onto locomotives. A number of new interpretation ideas will be tested during this phase and a large video projection will also be installed in the space.

When completed the hall will represent a large railway station complete with ticketing offices and theatrical lighting. Visitors will be able to take a step back in time, with exhibits spanning the ages.

The final phase is expected to be completed next summer.

The redevelopment comes after the museum was dealt a devastating blow when it was forced to abandon a £21m project to transform the Great Hall in the wake of Government cuts earlier this year.

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Also launching on Friday will be the museum’s new purpose-built £650,000 art gallery, which will host a programme of temporary exhibitions revealing the museum’s unseen art collection alongside railway-inspired works of art from across the world.

The first exhibition – Japan’s First Railway: Colour woodblock prints from the 1870s – showcases Japanese Meiji-era woodblock prints, loaned from the Modern Transport Museum in Osaka. The woodblock prints illustrate the excitement surrounding the opening of the first Japanese railway line between the capital Tokyo and the nearby port of Yokohama.

“The idea is that the displays in the art gallery are regularly changing,” said Mr Savage. “The next exhibition will feature railway posters and there’s a major poster exhibition on the horizon as well.

“This will feature posters from across Yorkshire – some of the greatest prints are from the region.”

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The museum’s shop and foyer has also received a £900,000 face-lift, offering an enhanced overall experience for visitors.

“There have been some big changes going on and there is now a really unique feel within the museum,” said Mr Savage.

For more information on the Station Hall project visit www.nrm.org.uk/stationhall.

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