York's Railway Museum


I’m not an avid train person, but I really, really enjoyed a visit to York’s Railway Museum and would highly recommend it to anyone of any age who visits York.

Queen Adelaide's carriage

I lucked out and arrived just in time for a half-hour talk about the royal carriages, starting with Queen Adelaide’s, which was a glorified stage coach on wheels, through Queen Victoria’s, and up to the train the royals used to travel around Great Britain during World War II. All royal insignia had been removed from the train for additional security, so one older woman unquestioningly boarded the train thinking it was the one she was waiting for. She was very unhappy about being asked to leave before she’d finished her paper and had a cup of tea.

Queen Victoria's carriage

King Edward's carriage

The displays are an important reminder of how train travel signified everything from seaside holidays to deliveries of fresh fish.




A display of WWI ambulance trains and memorabilia is a grimmer reminder of the many roles trains have played in people’s lives: “Carrying capacity to be increased to utmost. . . . It is better to carry many patients with some discomfort than to delay evacuating the Casualty Clearing Stations.” – Meeting of the Advisory Committee on Ambulance Trains, 30 March 1915.


More recent artifacts include a replica of a segment of the Channel Tunnel and a Japanese Bullet Train.


I had a simulator ride on the Mallard, the world’s fastest steam train that reached a record-breaking speed of 126 mph. It was great fun watching the cartoon characters add coal to the fire and worry about going off the tracks as we swooped and swerved.

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