The Friends of the National Railway Museum

Name: The Friends of the National Railway Museum
Address: Leeman Road, York, YO264XJ, GB
Telephone: +441904636874

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FNRM was formed in 1977 to support the National Railway Museum.

We help to fund the restoration of exhibits in the National Collection, the acquisition of new artefacts, and other projects that would otherwise not be possible.

28/10/2026

This image shows the well-furnished interior of the Great Western Railway’s dynamometer car built in 1901 for G J Churchward. It predates the Great Northern Railway’s version in the National Railway Museum, York, which was made in 1906.

As far back as 1841, Isambard Kingdom Brunel was musing on ways of testing locomotive performance by using a special vehicle. By 1848 it was already taking place on the GWR and being talked about in learned papers to professional institutions. In 1856 the GWR Locomotive Superintendent Daniel Gooch made what was called ‘a measuring van’ to test performance with different loads, on challenging gradients and resultant speeds.

The London & North Western Railway produced similar measuring vehicles in 1882 and 1908, and the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway had versions built in 1896 and 1913. The main purpose of all these vehicles was to measure locomotives’ drawbar pull, and as time went on they developed into more sophisticated travelling laboratories which measured different aspects of locomotives’ performance in terms of inputs such as coal and water and outputs in terms of temperatures, speed, power and waste. With more modern motive power from the late 1960s, there was less need for road testing and these cars ceased to be used.

Image and words: Mike Peart

26/10/2026

The use of asbestos was widespread across the railways. It was used in lagging locomotive boilers, pipe lagging, in paint for heated surfaces, in carriage manufacture and buildings. The white asbestos lagging on this Great Western Railway locomotive boiler and cylinders can be seen in this image. Lagging was covered with steel plates before the livery was applied.

White asbestos was banned in 1999. Up until the mid-1960s blue asbestos was used in coaching stock in flooring and heat and sound insulation and it, too, was banned in 1985. When the dangers from asbestos dust were realised, British Railways started to eliminate it from coaching stock. A large-scale programme had most of it removed by 1987. Steam locomotives and carriages in scrapyards weren’t allowed to be sold until the asbestos had been removed. Specialist contractors were called in to remove the material, and the national and heritage railways still have a duty to manage asbestos in trains, carriages and buildings. On the national network pre-2000 buildings, where it was used it has been replaced, sealed or been subject to risk assessment where it exists. Staff training is used to comply with the latest regulations and health and safety legislation for employees.

Image and words: Mike Peart

23/10/2026

This painting by “F Moore” shows an LNER 4-6-2 locomotive being cleaned. “F Moore” was a pseudonym used by the Locomotive Publishing Company for several painters. In Victorian days, locomotive cleaners used tallow after cleaning to create patterns on the clean livery. In this case, the 1920s locomotive appears to be a class A1 – later A3 – in the LNER apple green with black and white lining livery.

The ‘S’ on the buffer beam indicates that it’s a Southern area locomotive. However, “F Moore” seems to have had a bit of difficulty with the number. It might be 2554S which was “Woolwinder” made at Doncaster Plant Works in 1924 and withdrawn in 1961. In British Railways days it was 60055. The cleaners were aspiring firemen working on the dirtiest parts of the locomotive first before graduating to its cleaner areas. Cotton waste, paraffin and oil were the tools of their trade. Some used ‘fake’ (a paraffin mixture) whilst others used cotton waste first dipped in water and then oil before the final polish. When they became a ‘passed cleaner’ they did spare local fireman duties before becoming fully-fledged ‘passed firemen’. Passed firemen were allowed to drive on routes they knew before entering the lowest link of drivers and aiming to get to the top link.

Image and words: Mike Peart

22/10/2026

‘Flying Scotsman’ is out and about, looking good and working well! The locomotive called in at Didcot Railway Centre, Oxfordshire on 17th and 18th October. It was hauling Fox & Edwards Events circular tours which started at Didcot Parkway, then to Reading, Newbury, Hungerford, Westbury, Chippenham, Swindon and back to Didcot - a 133 mile circuit.

Pictured being coaled ready for a day’s work, the locomotive is at the Grade 2 listed GWR coaling stage which was constructed in 1932. Funds from the Development (Loan Guarantees and Grants) Act 1929 were used to build it. The Act was created to provide employment in the Depression. Wagons of coal were propelled up the ramp to supply the coaling stage. The interior of it can be seen in the image. It’s the only example in England still used for its original purpose. Overhead is the recently refurbished 74,250 gallon sheet iron and red brick water tank.

Image: Frank Dumbleton
Words: Mike Peart

21/10/2026

This hand cart for carrying fire equipment is on display at the National Railway Museum, York. The railway companies had their own often uniformed fire brigades at their principal locations where the risk of fire was high and had to be avoided. These might include their locomotive manufacture and repair works, carriage and wagon works, goods sheds and station buildings. Sparks from locomotives, and processes such as metal forging, cutting and riveting, handling inflammable materials such as paints and oils all posed risks.

Similarly there was combustible freight in storage areas and in transit. Engine sheds had hydrants with plentiful water, but not all vulnerable buildings had sprinkler systems. When smoking was far more common, fires were often caused by careless passengers smoking on stations and in trains especially if there was litter to help combustion.

Companies provided a range of equipment from the humble fire bucket and extinguishers to horse-drawn fire pumps and tenders, motorised fire engines and even fire trains were used where the risks were highest. This example was used by the London & North Eastern Railway (LNER) to move necessary equipment to the scene of a fire.

Image: Emma Allison
Words: Mike Peart

19/10/2026

On display in Station Hall at the National Railway Museum, York is the West Coast Joint Stock Travelling Post Office van Number 186 built at Wolverton in 1885.

The image shows the interior of the vehicle with its pigeon holes which were labelled for sorting letters and parcels into specific destinations. You can see how these specialised vehicles were used in the 1936 GPO Film Unit 23-minute film “Night Mail”. It shows the typical journey of the LMS postal train from London to Scotland with sorting and bundling of mail taking place. The lineside equipment along the route is seen being used for collection and delivery of the sturdy leather pouches used to contain bags of mail. The train is hauled by an unrebuilt 4-6-0 “Patriot” class locomotive, and the mail from Holyhead to Crewe needed on the mail train is hauled by a 2-6-0 “Crab”. The music for the film was composed by Benjamin Britten, and the sound track includes the poem “Night Mail” by W H Auden.

The mail trains usually ran at night and were well lit so that handwritten envelopes and packages could be deciphered by the sorting staff who had a good knowledge of British geography.

Image: Emma Allison
Words: Mike Peart

16/10/2026

This notice on the wall in Station Hall at the National Railway Museum, York is clearly an attempt to warn of dangers. Rural stations were used by farmers to transport their milk in churns (cans) to larger cities and urban areas. Some railway companies arranged the collection of filled churns. Loaded churns were sent daily, and empties returned daily in most cases. Full churns were treated as passenger traffic and smaller numbers were loaded into passenger trains. Larger numbers of churns were put into the vans of special milk trains to get them quickly to their destinations.

By 1896 the four main companies handling milk traffic into London were bringing around 20 million gallons into the capital each year. In that year it was thought that 96% of the milk consumed in London had been brought into the capital by train. Around 1927, four-wheeled milk tank railway wagons with enamelled insides started to be used. Stability was an issue with the surging liquid and six-wheeled tank wagons were developed later. Road tankers of milk were also transported on trains on flat wagons. Milk traffic was a significant revenue earner for railways until the 1960s and was phased out completely by the early 1980s.

Image: Emma Allison
Words: Mike Peart

14/10/2026

The 1 foot 11½ inch gauge Vale of Rheidol Railway runs for the 11¾ miles from Aberystwyth to Devil’s Bridge. First opened in 1902, it was amalgamated with the Cambrian Railway in 1913 and absorbed by the Great Western Railway (GWR) in 1923. Its older locomotives were scrapped or rebuilt.

Locomotive number 7 “Owain Glyndŵr” was built by the GWR at Swindon Works in July 1923 along with number 8 “Llywelyn”. Number 9 “Prince of Wales” was a heavy rebuild of an existing 1902 locomotive. Numbers 7, 8 and 9 have a 2-6-2 wheel arrangement with 11½ x 17 inch cylinders and Walschaerts valve gear.

Number 7 with its brass name and numberplates is seen here in British Rail livery at Aberystwyth shed. The service was suspended during World War Two but resumed in July 1945. The last train under British Rail ownership was hauled by number 7. It ran on 5th November 1988 with a wreath, black flags and “SOLD DOWN THE RHEIDOL” chalked on the rim of the smokebox. The line was sold by British Rail in 1989 and is now working in private ownership. The locomotives have since been converted to oil burning.

Image: Angus Davis
Words: Mike Peart

12/10/2026

NEW fourth edition for purchase, visit: https://www.nrmfriends.org.uk/product-page/flying-scotsman-the-locomotive

12/10/2026

On display in Station Hall at the National Railway Museum, York is the West Coast Joint Stock Travelling Post Office van Number 186 built at Wolverton in 1885.

One feature of this Post Office sorting vehicle is the detachable letter box which was fitted to the outside of the vehicle when it was standing at a station platform such as at the terminus in Euston, London. The idea was that members of the public could post an urgent letter in the days when letters were used far more widely than they are now in this electronic communication age. To do so, they had to ensure that an extra halfpenny stamp had to be fixed to it. The box was removed and taken inside just before the train was due to start off, and its contents added to the mail being sorted and put off and picked up at the lineside equipment during the journey along the West Coast Main Line to and from Scotland.

Image: Emma Allison
Words: Mike Peart

Address

Leeman Road
York
YO264XJ

Telephone

+441904636874

Website

https://www.nrmfriends.org.uk/

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