I mentioned the National Rail Museum while choosing Petite Fleur as one of my Sunday music videos:
In my student days the museum used to run slide shows about railway history, with a musical accompaniment of brass bands and jazz tunes to give a period feel. This tune, in fact this very version of it, was one of those used.Though those slide shows are no more, I was surprised at how little the museum has changed. It is bigger, certainly, but the atmosphere is the same and there were
fewer computer simulations and the like than I had expected.
One welcome change is that you can now get to the museum from York station. When I knew it you had to walk down the busy Leeman Road and under the wide railway bridge along a narrow pavement. Calder's First Law of the National Railway Museum held that whichever side of the road you took, you would meet a school party coming the other way/
Another welcome innovation, at least on a wet day, is this road train, which takes visitors into the city, stopping outside the Minster.
Less welcome was the discover that the Minster has changed more than the museum, now charging £9 for entrance. I made my excuses and left.
This is a great museum and some of the trains on display are extraordinary pieces of engineering. It's also an interesting look back at the culture of train travel. I don't know if it is still there, but there used to be a small model train place next door run by, er, very enthusiastic hobbyists. A slice of English popular culture in itself.
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