On the 22/10/11 my brood and I visited the National Rail Museum. They were running a load of activities over the half term period and we were lucky enough to receive an invitation to ‘review’ them. Our kids are three and six, and have been to their fair share of amusement parks and museums, with varying successes – often places will cater more for one age than another, or simply bore them stupid. The National Rail Museum was neither of the latter. It was, in all truth, a fabulous day out, that we all thoroughly enjoyed.
A tiny section of the Museum from the outside. The start of the day!
Here’s a picture of some of the massive trains we saw there. It always amazes me how huge steam trains actually are, they’re like the dinosaur versions of what we see on our rail tracks today.
This was a posh royal train with beautifully intricate insignia on the front.
There was so much to do that we struggled to fit it all in. The highlights were definitely a ride on the full size steam train outside, the adventure playground for the kids, the trip in the Simulator where you imagined you were on a journey into space (ie. being safely thrown about inside a sealed box) and for me, lunch.
A lovely restaurant / cafe sandwiched between two trains.
Something that I think is wonderful is that the National Railway Museum is actually free entry, and there’s so much you can see without spending a penny. There are little extras that are like the icing on the cake which cost a couple of pounds here and there though, so do expect to spend a little if you visit. The main restaurant isn’t cheap either, although the meals are delicious – there is a smaller cafe that is less expensive though, and there are picnic facilities which is always a bonus.
Inside a train, a helpful member of staff explained a lot of the equipment. Very complicated!
I particularly loved the Meccano exhibits there, I would never thought it possible that anyone could make something like this from little strips of metal riveted together. Unfortunately my dad couldn’t come with us on the day, so he missed it. He would have really enjoyed this bit. When I was a kid he always tried to encourage me to make stuff with Meccano. I think I made a snake once. I’m not very technically minded you see – which probably explains why in the past the whole topic of trains has actually bored me senseless. But! On this day I wasn’t bored, despite my lack of enthusiasm for massive pieces of machinery.
A train made entirely from Meccano! There was even a miniature model of the Empire States Building made completely from the stuff too! Amazing really!
Craft activities were provided for the kids and there was an outside playground too – so when our two got a bit bored of going ‘Choo Choo! and gawping at the massive wheels, they got to ‘play’ for a while, which burnt off a bit of energy. Nothing has been forgotten, honestly, I was so impressed to see that outside the playground, they even had a wasp trap set up just above the entrance. How very thoughtful!
There were talks and demonstrations, and even a number of mini plays set up for younger children. Our two loved sitting and watching two members of staff who role-played a presentation about the queen coming to visit the station (I think it was Queen Victoria, but I can’t remember.) Through the little tale they told, they relayed a bit of history about trains, about the queen and involved all the children by getting them to wave flags and shout out ‘The Queen is coming!’ very loudly every now and then. My only complaint is that the kids didn’t get to keep the flags. Having to get a 3 year old to return something as fun as a flag, that he’s been playing with for the last 15 minutes is not necessarily an easy task. Cue tears. Aw…
*yells* ‘The Queeeeen is Coming!!!!!!’
Indoors there is a pedal powered mini train, another larger mini indoors train that chuff-chuffs its way up and down between some of the full size trains, an outside grown up steam train that is actually full sized and travels up and down a track…..and (takes a breath) yet another mini steam powered smaller train that travels a little way around the museum. There’s a helluva lot of trains! But that has to be expected I suppose!
Believe it or not they even run a ‘Road Train’ into York, which unfortunately we missed because we left it too late in the day. That I presume, was a bus, that took people into York and dropped and picked them up again. I thought it was a nice thing to have set up, people could visit the museum and then head into the ancient and particularly picturesque city of York for a wander around too.
You could even see underneath the trains!
All in all, we had fun. Despite losing Sausage for 5 heartstopping minutes, losing our rucksack, and losing Horace and Darlek for quite some considerable time. We did all find each other and the rucksack after a bit of losing our tempers too – but I think that’s all part of a family day out sometimes.
I can’t recommend this museum highly enough, all ages are catered for, and I found all the staff to be very friendly and helpful – which I think is very important. If you’re ever in the North West area, I’d certainly recommend a visit. There were more activities, but I think I’ve gone on enough. Please see HERE to read the blurb from their website, and to see what they have planned on the run up to Christmas. If these half term activities were anything to go by, you’ll be in for a treat!
Very, very child friendly. Absolutely can’t fault them at all!
