After some group and family pictures (some with a self-timer and
some with someone taking the picture), Chris and Bethan took us
into York. We went early, so we could visit the National Railway
Museum which was right next to the York train station. We saw
various old trains and replicas of trains, plus an assortment of
miscellaneous items, and a replica of a mine cart (or truck) that
Chris had made for the museum.
Then Stephanie and I went to the station, boarded the train and
headed back down to Cambridge.
Part 9: Backyard
Blacksmith Workshop Part 10: Bagby Airfield Part 11: Byland Abbey Part 12: National Railway
Museum Part 13: Cambridge (Part
2) Part 14: Cambridge
Botanical Gardens Part 15: The Departure
004-DSC_1330-header: Family and Group Pictures!
004-DSC_1330-headertext: A few pictures of all of us in Chris and
Bethan's kitchen.
004-DSC_1330: I wanted to take a test picture using the self-timer.
Isabel wanted to help.
005-DSC_1332: Self-timeer. Beatrix, Isabel, Bethan, Chris, Frank (dork),
Stpehanie (eyes).
006-DSC_1333: Bethan with B and Izzy, Chris, and Stephanie.
007-DSC_1334: Happy family shot
008-DSC_1335: (Blurry) Bethan, B, and Izzy, (content) Stephanie,
and (happy) Frank
009-DSC_1336: (Focused) Bethan, B, and Izzy, (somberer) Stephanie, and
(still happy) Frank
010-DSC_1337: Chris Topp Art and General Blacksmith sign on house.
011-DSC_1338-header: National Railway Museum—Station Hall
011-DSC_1338-headertext: We visited the
National Railway Museum.
It's organized into 3 sections: 1) The Station Hall, which looks like a
railway platform with different trains on the tracks; 2) The Great Hall,
which has trains, pieces of trains, replicas, cut-outs, and other things
like a giant functional turntable; and 3) The Collections Store, which
has all sorts of smaller objects relating to trains, from seats, signs,
and signals, to uniforms, to models. Most of that is fairly unsorted.
There are other areas, like restoration sheds, but we only had about 45
minutes to get a taste of the area.
The first place we went was the Station Hall.
011-DSC_1338: This was outside of the museum entrance.
012-DSC_1340: A nice grandfather clock and classic rail station posters.
013-DSC_1341: The Station Hall looks like a multi-platform station.
014-DSC_1342: It's a train. (Sorry, not every caption is informative.)
015-DSC_1343: Classic train in the National Railway Museum's Station Hall.
016-DSC_1344: Classic train station platform furniture plus passenger cars in
the background.
017-DSC_1345: A green train.
018-DSC_1346: Bethan and Izzy at the engineer's station.
019-DSC_1347: Izzy at the controls of an old locomotive.
020-DSC_1348: Note the cart with baskets (luggage? food?) on the platform.
021-DSC_1349: Old signs on the station wall. My grandmother, who grew
up in London, liked Colman's mustard.
022-DSC_1350: Royal carriages...now that's going first class.
023-DSC_1351: The seating inside a royal carriage.
024-DSC_1352: The royal carriage seats look pretty comfortable.
025-DSC_1353: The engine of another old train, but this one is yellow.
026a-DSC_1355-header: Great Hall
026a-DSC_1355-headertext: The Great Hall had historic trains, some big
honking trains, as well as replicas and cut-outs of parts of trains.
It's the largest of the halls.
026a-DSC_1355: The Agenoria, built in 1829, was the last of the old
technology trains. It has an enormously tall smokestack.
026b-big_train3_Panorama: Panoramic shot of The Agenoria and it's huge
smokestack.
027-DSC_1360: A train signal box (little hut that controlled the signaling).
028-DSC_1361: A replica of a mine cart.
029-DSC_1362: Chris' company was commissioned to create this replica mine cart.
030-DSC_1363: Bethan, Chirs, Isabel, Beatrix, and Stephanie admire the mine
cart.
031-DSC_1364: Closeup of the ironwork on the mine cart.
032-DSC_1365: Stephanie and Chris.
033-DSC_1366: The front of the minecart.
034-DSC_1367: Information on the hund truck (mine cart).
035-DSC_1368: Isabel in a rail carriage.
036a-DSC_1369: Information on the railway carriages.
036b-big_train_Panorama: This is a big honking train engine!
037a-DSC_1372: Another train engine (Evening Star).
037b-DSC_1373: A replica of the Rocket, an 1829 train engine with
improved technology in its boiler, firebox, connecting rods, and
blastpipe, compared to other technlogy like The Agenoria.
037c-rocket_train_Panorama: Composite picture of The Rocket replica.
It was designed for a museum with cutaway sections to show how it worked.
Again, not a proper panorama. Because of the tall smokestack, I didn't
want to take a lot of unneeded pictures above the train just to keep
the picture as a rectangle.
038-DSC_1386: Information on the Tender, Footplate, and Firebox below.
039a-DSC_1387: Information on the Boiler below.
039b-train-left_Panorama: Composite of the train with a cutaway view of the
Tender, Footplate, and Firebox.
039c-train-right_Panorama: Composite of train with a cutaway view of the
Boiler.
040a-DSC_1388: Information on the Stationary Winding Engine.
040b-train_lift_Panorama: Composite picture of the stationary winding
engine. Again, to save bits and bytes, I didn't take a complete
picture of all the dead space. Plus there's some distortion from
the processing. It's a big steam engine that turns a wheel that moves
a cable that was used to haul cargo up and down hills in mining areas,
without having to have complicated and smaller engines on the trains.
This was used to haul limestone out of a quary in the Stanhope area by
the Stanhope and Tyne railway line. It was built between 1832 and 1834
and rated at 50 HP.
041-DSC_1394: I'm not sure what train this is. The front looks like a VW van.
042-DSC_1395: Another old train from 1851, Eastern Counties Coach and
Bauxite No 2.
043-DSC_1396:
044c-big_train1_Panorama: Panoramic of Mallard engine and pedestiran bridge
above it. Some distortion from the panoramic shot.
045-DSC_1405: B walks down the steps of the pedestrian bridge with a little
help from Bethan.
046-big_train2_Panorama: Eurostar train.
047-train_collection_Panorama-header: Collections Store
047-train_collection_Panorama-headertext: This area contains all sorts of
items relating to trains. This includes signs, light posts, seats,
lanterns, silver tea service items, bells, desks, windows, oil cans,
wheels, suitcases, and much more. Most have small tags identifying
what they are, but little more. The museum has guided tours, including
ones that explore things in the Store.
Also, this is 'store' as in 'storage' as opposed to 'any of this is
on sale to you if the price is right.'
047-train_collection_Panorama: A panoramic view of some of the stuff in the
Collections Store from the stop of some steps.
048-DSC_1401: A case with a lot of model trains in it.
Bottom:
Part 9: Backyard
Blacksmith Workshop Part 10: Bagby Airfield Part 11: Byland Abbey Part 12: National Railway
Museum Part 13: Cambridge (Part
2) Part 14: Cambridge
Botanical Gardens Part 15: The Departure