Having stirred reasonably early I had a leisurely sort out of the van, deciding I’d pick up some breakfast on the way (which I did). The visit for the day was Locomotion - The National Railway Museum at Shildon; I’d been before but there was a model railway show going on last time, and there’s been a change in exhibits, so I felt it was worth another look.
As with a lot of places you have to book timed tickets to avoid having lots of people queueing although in truth it wasn’t so busy it would ever have been a problem*. I’d gone for the first slot at 10:30-11:00 and just had to wait a few moments while they unlocked the doors. There’s a lot of variety in the displays from the very earliest locos (Shildon’s slogan is “The Cradle of the Railways) to some modern ones with a number of wagons and coaches thrown in. There’s also a bit of fantasy:
This is, of course, a Rowland Emett creation, I’ll post the video of it running once I’ve edited out the people walking through the shot!
Contrary to what the web site had suggested the cafe were doing a limited range of hot meals so I settled on pie, chips and beans for dinner** before having a final wander. One loco has a connection to my current model railway build, the Lyon (or Lyons, there seems to be some doubt which) was built in 1852 for the Hetton Colliery Railway which is featured adjacent to the coal depot I’m modelling. Unusually for such an early loco it wasn’t withdrawn until 1912 although it was rebuilt in 1882.
The museum isn’t huge and everything is quite close together which makes photography difficult however I understand they have plans for a second building which, when it finally happens, will be a good excuse for another visit!
The drive to site was uneventful and not all that far so I got checked in early afternoon. When I was last here the site emptied out quite a bit when the Teesside weekenders went home but this year it seems to be pretty much full for the week. My plans for the next few days are fluid, there’s rain forecast for tomorrow and the sun doesn’t really make an appearance until Wednesday; I want decent weather for taking photos in Sunderland so that’s going to be later in the week, probably Thursday as it’s market day in BC on Wednesday (I’ll keep checking the forecast though). I need a shopping stock up so I’ll see what it’s like in the morning. If the forecast is right it’ll be raining through to about 1pm so I may have a lazy morning then walk over to the town in the afternoon, alternatively I fancy a visit to the Durham Mining Museum in Spennymoor which would fill some time.
*It would be different at the main site in York.
**I’m oop North, the midday meal is dinner and the evening one is tea, live with it!
Not only oop North it was always mid day meal was dinner (as in school dinners) and we would always be told get back indoors for your tea. Must be us London East Enders being like those oop north. None of this trendy "Lunch and Dinner" posh nonsense :-)
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