The LNER Encyclopedia

Having a little free time today I visited the above museum, I have to say I was more than a little disappointed after all the publicity it received on the opening. For a bank holiday there were very few there, parking was quite a distance away although there was a courtesy bus, very poor signage considering this was a flagship scheme, not an easy place to access.

On view were Deltic, Green Arrow, a crab. Tyneside quayside electric and so on, you got the feeling it was lip service to the locals, the machine shop is basic to say the least. Why is stock allowed to get into such a state before rerstoration is attempted ?
The onboard cafe was nothing to write home about either, all in all a rather disappointing afternoon so we proceeded down to Ferryhill and oh how this has gone downhill, once an important centre it is now in a very rundown state.
I can see the historical aspect of locating this museum here but the commercial aspect is a disaster.

redtoon1892 wrote:parking was quite a distance away although there was a courtesy bus, very poor signage considering this was a flagship scheme.

Parking quite a distance away? That all depend on which end of the site you park, I'm guessing you parked at the opposite end to the main building. There is a large free car park right next door to the main building, it couldn't be closer. And as for poor signage, there are signs from the outskirts of shildon directing you!!!

I agree that Shildon is a bit disappointing but part of the problem is that the North-East has a lot of other attractions, each of which has more character, e.g. the Tanfield Railway, Stephenson Museum, North Road. For me, Beamish takes some beating, mainly because I model North Eastern (among others) and it has a good selection of North Eastern rolling stock. It's a bit pricey but there's a lot there. I was particularly taken with the depot on their Pockerley Waggonway, which has the feel of a working railway (it has the same sort of atmosphere as the engine shed at Tanfield):

the depot on their Pockerley Waggonway, which has the feel of a working railway

It is a working railway - in the sense that they steam the engines and work trains backwards and forwards along the short length of line.

For those who've never been I can't recommend Beamish highly enough. However, on the basis that it's free, it's well signposted and has plenty of parking (whether you choose to park close to it or not) I think the Shildon NRM is well worth a visit. Since the alternative would be to disperse the exhibits among preserved railways (where the standard of storage/presentation is not always what it might be) or put them in closed storage, I don't think Shildon is a bad option.

I thought Shildon was superb, personally - in fact I preferred it to NRM York. The North East has some superb places, not all of which i've visited yet;

Darlington Railway Museum
NYMR
NRM York
NRM Shildon
Beamish
Tanfield Railway
Monkwearmouth Station Museum
Weardale Railway
Kirkby Stephen East Museum
Derwent Valley Light Railway
Stephenson Locomotive Museum

and those are just the ones with NER links, there's probably a few more too (such as Bowes Railway which is industrial)

I better get in before 60041 and plug what the AVRS is trying to do. I hope this scheme comes to fruition.

Thanks for the plug 52D, you got in before me!
Also don't forget the superb little museum at Norham Station

Is Norham still OK? Hoping to pop in next week.

Norham is still going. Following the death of Peter Short a couple of years ago, there was some question whether the museum would stay open or not, but Mrs Short has pledged to keep it going as long as she can.
I visited last year and things looked much the same as ever, however I did notice that some pictures had been stolen from the signal box since my previous visit.
You can check the opening times by phoning 01289 382217

Thanks for that I will try to visit next week (wandering around Kelso and Berwick for a couple of days).

The Wylam Railway Museum in Wylam Library is well worth a visit.Its open on Tuesday and Thursday, or at least it was the last time I was there.

Shildon was certainly quiet for my visit on 20th May.

Plus points: Excellent lighting compared to dreary York, with generally enough space to get back far enough from items for photography or just to "drink in" the overall view.

Minus Points: It may have a free car park right by the main building - as we belatedly discovered (and as staed above a free bus shuttle from the less convenient car parks) but Shildon "Locomotion" website directions and map as far as I could tell do not direct you to (or even tell you of) that most convenient, immediately adjacent car park - which would not be very nice if it were "inclement". Arrival at the "other" car parks is a bit disorentating initially, with bits and pieces of the site's "lesser" features scattered about all over the place. I think the uninitiated are directed only to the remote car parks so that they can all have the questionable benefit of the "full experience" (in hype or marketing-speak) including the walk along to the museum past a number of signs partly explaining the significance (?) of the things you are passing. Also, whilst not the museum's fault, we struggled to get there at all due to closure of part of the main road from the A1 into Shildon (only apparent when fully "committed" to the route) with inadequate signs to explain the closure and alternative routes. Had the museum had the means and the will to put up a warning of this closure on its own website we could have planned to avoid the problem.

In fairness I probably should add, that temorary road closure aside, getting into to Shildon would be MILES easier than the agony of my latest attempt to get through York to the NRM on a rainy friday morning, with all of the traffic lights seemingly set up by the local authority quite deliberately to grid-lock the majority road users (also confined to their "any vehicle" lanes so that the buses and taxis can sweep sneeringly by).