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I have been watching DVD's of lots of (mostly excellent) British mystery/crime shows and one I'm watching now is Inspector Morse. In an early episode, a visiting American character touring Oxford (it is set mainly in Oxford) tells his wife he has a tummy ache and instead cuts out of the historic tour to go to visit a train museum. It looked like a fun museum, and there were several nice shots; also station shots of trains (then BritRail I think) on which characters traveled.
Some of the other very fine shows I've watched include Cracker, Second Sight, Kavanagh (still watching more), Touch of Frost (still watching more), and New Tricks (can't seem to get DVDs of more). No strong train connections in those . ..
Posts: 2642 | From: upstate New York | Registered: Mar 2004
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It's unusual to show people in trains in modern dramas on British TV - cars seem to take precedence. It's usually shows such as Poirot or Miss Marple that have train scenes. There were also the US made Basil Rathbone "war-time"(!) Sherlock Holmes featuring trains supposedly in England but definitely Hollywood looking. Rather embarrassing I'm afraid.
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In 1985, my gawd, that's twenty five years ago! To continue, in 1985 the bride and I had our bicycles packed into the belly of Boeing 747 and winged our way across the Atlantic to London. We cheated and were able to get from Heathrow to Kings Cross by bus and tube. We then spent the next 10 days taking British Rail up to Edinburgh with stops along the way at Sheffield, Thirsk, and York, using our bikes to travel about the various areas.
There is a British Rail Museum in York, a thing of beauty and history. Unfortunately we had only a couple of hours to tour the facility and saw only the highlights. We sorely wish we had spent more time there. Six hours probably wouldn't have been enough.
The ten days we "biked" around the country sides and through the cities we had not a drop of rain. Upon our return to London, we didn't cheat and rode through the city from Kings Cross to our digs near the Marlyborne Road Station. For the next four days it POURED.
Should any of you be heading north in the UK, DO spend some time at the Brit Rail Museum in York.
Best regards, Rodger
Posts: 112 | From: Merrimac, MA | Registered: Nov 2007
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Yes, Didcot was what I was thinking (about 10 miles from Oxford), though not much of a museum - the main attraction is the fact it's got broad gauge track and trains. Ironically the length of its track is limited by the surrounding "real" railway - it sits within a triangle ("wye")!
The National Rail Museum in York should be on any visitor's itinerary if anywhere near there. It's free to get in and is pretty large. You can even see behind the scenes where exhibits are stored but not displayed, or are under renovation.
-------------------- Geoff M. Posts: 2426 | From: Apple Valley, CA | Registered: Sep 2000
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Yes, I've been to the National Railway Museum in York. My reaction is similar to HillsideStation's -- Lord, it was in 1986! -- and we didn't bicycle, we walked the Pennine Way, 65 miles in five days, just a little rain, and ended up in Bowes,near Barnard Castle. We had sent our "street clothes" on ahead to York, so we could minimize what we had to carry on our backs. We got a lift to Barnard Castle railway station, took the train to York, and spent a couple of days touring the city and, of course, the railway museum. Do not miss it!
We then rented car and drove to the Scottish border, back south to Devon and Cornwall,and ended by taking the train from Penzance to London. On the car portion of the trip, we did also stop at Swindon, where there is a small Great Western museum with the last of the six-foot gauge locomotives. I.K. Brunel was right; six feet would have been a much better choice of gauge than 4 ft. 8.5 inches.
Posts: 614 | From: Merchantville, NJ. USA | Registered: Aug 2000
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The National Rail Museum in York should be on any visitor's itinerary if anywhere near there. It's free to get in and is pretty large. You can even see behind the scenes where exhibits are stored but not displayed, or are under renovation.
I agree! It is a most fascinating museum. There is a gallery from which you can watch the Flying Scotsman under renovation. Although I've been there several times, including each of the last three years, it was only in May of this year that I discovered an outdoor viewing area which overlooks the northerly approach to the station. There was even a monitor showing the train times. Because it was a half-term school break, there were short rides offered behind a steam loco. We always have a light meal or afternoon tea at the cafe on a platform beside a restaurant car. It's a bit pricey, but considering the museum is free it is worth it.
Posts: 216 | From: Mississauga, Ontario, Canada | Registered: Jul 2000
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York has the National Railway Museum and it is superb; Sacramento with its dining and sleeping car exhibits runs it a very close second in the public areas. The bookshop there is also very friendly and helpful. York also has a huge archive of ephemera. The "reserve" collection is in Shildon, a town in County Durham, famous for its Hackworth connections; it was also a centre of goods waggon construction until the 1970s. Some interesting railway trails in and around the town. Also in the North-East are the Tanfield Railway, on whose site is the oldest existing stone arched railway bridge and the Bowes Railway, part of a huge network of colliery railways, which demonstrates cable haulage of mineral waggons on certain open days. Nearby is the Beamish Open Air Museum with a relocated rural sation and steam operation days, including early replica colliery locomotives, e.g. Locomotion. Wylam village to the west of Newcastle has George Stephenson connections, including his birth-place, a cottage built c. 1760. The whole area is riddled with railway connections, some better exploited than others. A particularly successful one has been the conversion of former waggonways, both rope-hauled and locomotive powered, into cycle tracks. There are usually some information boards at the entrance point to these routes, if they have not been rendered useless by our gangs of mindless graffiti merchants! By the way I recently bought a copy of Robert J. Wayner's "Car names, Numbers and Consist" published in 1972 in a local second-hand bookshop. No doubt it is familiar to many of you. It is a real treasure, making possible, together with "Travel by Pullman" and "The American Streamliners" even more realistic arm-chair rail travel across the states in the days of luxury facilities!
Posts: 168 | From: uk. northumberland | Registered: Jun 2007
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Great you were able to find "Car Names Numbers and Consists" in the UK, Mr. MGT.
Likely, it is the most used "ex libris" reference I have in the preparation of posts.
Finally, a 1986 visit to the National Railway Museum at York, N. Yorkshire, UK is included within the "CV".
Posts: 9976 | From: Clarendon Hills, IL USA (BNSF Chicago Sub MP 18.71) | Registered: Apr 2002
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quote:Originally posted by mgt: York has the National Railway Museum and it is superb; Sacramento with its dining and sleeping car exhibits runs it a very close second in the public areas.
I wondered how the two compared - now I know to make a trip to Sacramento one day!
Posts: 2426 | From: Apple Valley, CA | Registered: Sep 2000
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I'm another of the lucky Yanks here on the Rail Forum that has personally been to the York museum and facilities. It's everything the others have said, and should be on a "must see" list for any trip to the UK. My journey there was in late 2001, right after the American attacks. My trans-Atlantic airplane was only about 1/2 full, due to the drop off of passengers flying after 9/11.
Though many things "went wrong" on my UK trip; Continental Airlines LOST my checked bags and my traveling partner and I had a "parting of the ways," the trip to the Museum, and the awesome York Minster cathedral made up for the other stuff.
While we had Henry Ford and his cars that came in "any color you want as long as its black" UK residents can stand tall and proud for giving us the world-changing invention of Railways-- interesting how there was a 6 foot gauge for awhile, until the Standard Gauge took hold...
Posts: 588 | From: East San Diego County, CA | Registered: Oct 2004
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As a citizen of the UK I make no claims for having "invented the railway". Seemingly the earliest record dates back to c. 600 B.C. in ancient Greece. There is an engraving in "De Re Metallica", published in 1556, of a railway at a German mine, and what could be some early form of coal staith or drop. I also noticed in an edition of Trains this year that the fondly held belief in this part of the world, North East UK, that the standard gauge came about because George Stephenson was familiar with the ruts made by Roman carts in the area of Hadrian's Wall, is simply a myth!
Posts: 168 | From: uk. northumberland | Registered: Jun 2007
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Well, we Americans didn't invent the car either. Henry Ford just figured out to make it a largescale, profitable means of transportation. I guess British inventors figured out how to make railroads a largescale, profitable transportation, by using the steam locomotive (which Stephenson did invent, didn't he?) etc.
Posts: 2642 | From: upstate New York | Registered: Mar 2004
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Like most inventions, they are rarely the work of one person. Take flying: at the time of the Wright brother's flight, hundreds of people around the world were trying - and succeeding, as documentary evidence has since shown - to fly aircraft. The Wright brothers were simply canny enough to get it recorded officially and publically. The telephone is another example.
-------------------- Geoff M. Posts: 2426 | From: Apple Valley, CA | Registered: Sep 2000
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