Locomotion Museum facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
Locomotion

The exterior of the main exhibition hall
Established	22 October 2004; 20 years ago (2004-10-22)
Location	Shildon, County Durham, England
Type	Railway museum
Visitors	180,697 (2019)
Public transit access	Shildon railway station
National Museum of Science and Industry
National Media Museum · National Railway Museum (Shildon Locomotion Museum) · Science Museum (Dana Centre, Science Museum Swindon)

Locomotion, also known as Locomotion the National Railway Museum at Shildon, is a cool railway museum located in Shildon, County Durham, England. It's a great place to learn about the history of trains! The museum got its new name in 2017 when it became part of the Science Museum Group, which runs several amazing museums across the UK.

About Locomotion

This museum first opened its doors on 22 October 2004. The person who opened it was Tony Blair, who was the leader of the UK government at the time and also a local Member of Parliament. Building the museum cost about £11.3 million. It was built on the site of an older museum called the "Timothy Hackworth Victorian Railway Museum".

Locomotion is run together with Durham County Council. When it first opened, people thought about 60,000 visitors would come each year. But it was much more popular! In its first six months, 94,000 people visited. The museum was even chosen as one of the top five places for the Gulbenkian Prize, which is a big award for arts and culture in the United Kingdom.

There are exciting plans for the museum's future by 2025. A second building will be added to show even more trains and railway items. Also, some older parts of the museum, like the coal drops, will be fixed up and brought back to life.

Where the Museum Is Built

The museum is located near Timothy Hackworth's Soho Works. This area is very important because it's on the world's first public railway, the Stockton and Darlington Railway. This railway opened on 27 September 1825. The first train, pulled by Locomotion No 1, took two hours to travel about 12 miles from Shildon to Darlington.

Shildon became a major hub for building railway parts because of the Shildon wagon works. These works sadly closed in 1984.

Shildon station was rebuilt and made modern when the museum was constructed. It's right next to the museum's special rail line where trains can be shown off. Trains from the Tees Valley Line, run by Northern, stop at this station.

Exploring the Museum

The museum is set up like a trail, about 1 kilometer (or 0.6 miles) long. You'll find signs and information points along the way, leading from the car parks to the main building where the trains are kept. The museum has several tracks outside the main building for showing off trains that live there and trains that are visiting.

The trail begins at a 19th-century welcome building. The original Sans Pareil engine used to be here, but now it's in the main Collection Building.

The second stop is Timothy Hackworth's house. Inside, you can find out more about Shildon's history. Next is Soho, a stone building that used to be a railway workshop. Before that, it was a store for iron. The fourth stop is the old goods shed for the town. Most items coming in and out were brought to the railway by horses and carts. This building was partly built using old stone blocks that were once railway sleepers, and you can still see the old fixing slots in the walls.

Further along the trail is the railway station's parcel office. Across the tracks, you can see the old stables where horses for the early horse-drawn wagons were kept. The coal drops were a place where steam trains would get refueled. Wagons full of coal were pulled up a ramp, and the coal was 'dropped' down wooden slides into the train's coal storage area.

The trail goes under a road. You'll find a children's playground and a picnic area outside the main Collection building. The trail ends at the biggest building in the museum. This huge hall has the main exhibition and a workshop where you can watch volunteers fixing up some of the exhibits. This building also has fun interactive games, a cafe, and a shop.

Amazing Exhibits

Locomotion is home to many cool locomotives from the National Collection. This includes a copy of Timothy Hackworth's Sans Pareil. The original engine, which was built to compete in the famous Rainhill Trials, is also at Shildon. These trials were held to decide which engine would be best for the new passenger railway between Liverpool and Manchester. After 175 years away, the original Sans Pareil was brought back to Shildon and is now on display in the Collection building.

Another famous train, LNER Class A4 4468 Mallard, which usually lives at the NRM's York museum, was shown here temporarily from June 2010 to July 2011. In 2014, for the 75th birthday of Mallard's world steam speed record, 8,000 visitors came to see five sister A4 locomotives. These included 60008 "Dwight D Eisenhower" and 60010 "Dominion of Canada", which came all the way from North America! The "Dominion of Canada" even got a fresh new look in Shildon's workshop.

The main exhibition building holds most of the museum's collection. You can see unique trains like the prototype APT-E and Deltic units. The museum also has a wind turbine that helps create electricity for the UK's power network. There's even a biodiesel bus on site to take visitors around.

If you want to see a specific train, it's a good idea to check with the museum beforehand, just in case it's not on display that day.

Steam Locomotives

Steam Locomotives

Class	Number (and name if applicable)	Livery	Image	Current Status	Additional Notes
Hunslet Austerity 0-6-0ST	3850 Juno	Green		Static	Used in ironstone quarries.
SR Battle of Britain Class	34051 Winston Churchill	BR Lined Green		Static	Pulled Winston Churchill's funeral train.
LMS Stanier Class 5 4-6-0	5000	LMS Lined Black		Static	The very first "Black Five" of its kind.
Locomotion	1 Locomotion	Wood lagged		Static	The original engine built for the Stockton and Darlington Railway.
Locomotion replica	1 Locomotion	Wood lagged			Moved here from Head of Steam – Darlington Railway Museum in March 2021.
NER Class C1	65033	BR Black		Static (awaiting restoration)
LNER Class V2	4771 Green Arrow	LNER Apple Green		Static (potential restoration opportunity)
Sans Pareil replica	Sans Pareil	Green and Yellow painted wood		Static
Timothy Hackworth entry for Rainhill Trials	Sans Pareil	Exposed Metal		Static
LNWR Class G2	49395	BR Black		Static
Hetton colliery railway locomotive	Lyon	Black		Static
NER Class M1	1621	NER Apple Green		Static
GNR Class C1 (large boiler)	251	GNR Apple Green		Static	Now moved to a museum in Doncaster.
LSWR 0298 Class (Beattie well tank)	30587	BR Black
South African Class 7A 4-8-0	390	Black		Static	Cape Gauge (a type of track width).
LNWR Improved Precedent Class	790 Hardwicke	LNWR Lined Black		Static
Andrew Barclay fireless locomotive	Imperial No. 1	Imperial Paper Mills Green		Static

Diesel & Electric Locomotives

Diesel & Electric Locomotives

Class	Number (and name if applicable)	Livery	Image	Current Status	Additional Notes
LNER Class ES1 Electric Shunter	1	NER Lined Green		Static
British Rail Class 03 Shunter	D2090 (03090)	BR Green		Operational
British Rail Class 08 Shunter	08911 Matey	BR Blue with NRM branding		Operational
English Electric DP1	DP1 DELTIC	Blue with grey lining		Static	Prototype Deltic engine.
British Rail Class 41 (HST)	41001	Reverse BR Blue & Grey		Static (awaiting inspection)	Prototype HST (High Speed Train) power car.
British Rail Class 43 (HST)	43102	InterCity Swallow		Static	Named "The Journey Shrinker". Holds the world speed record for diesel trains.
British Rail Class 71	71001	BR Blue		Static (under restoration)
British Rail APT-E	APT-E	Reverse BR Blue & Grey		Static	A gas turbine train.
Sentinel Diesel-hydraulic Shunter	H001	RMS Locotec Blue		Static	First used at Bass Brewery.
Wickham Trolley	960209	BR Brown		Static
Southern Railway Waterloo & City line Shunter (1898)	75S	L&SWR Salmon		Static

Diesel & Electric Multiple Units

Diesel & Electric Multiple Units

Class	Number (and name if applicable)	Livery	Image	Current Status	Additional Notes
British Rail Class 306	306017	BR Green with yellow warning panel		Static (awaiting restoration)	Two cars are outside, one is covered behind the workshop.
British Rail Class 142	142001	Unbranded Northern		Operational
British Rail Class 414	4308	Network SouthEast on one side, BR Blue and Grey the other		Static
British Rail Class 401	2090	BR Green		Static

Hauled Rolling Stock & Wagons

Hauled Rolling Stock & Wagons

Class	Number (and name if applicable)	Livery	Image	Additional Notes
British Railways Mark 1 Brake Corridor Composite Coach	21274	BR InterCity
BR ZZA Snow Plough	ADB 965232	Network Rail Black
SR "Queen Mary" brake van	B56283	BR Brown		Used at museum for carrying passengers.
BR merry-go-round train HAA coal hopper wagon	350000	BR Grey		The very first HAA wagon built.
BR merry-go-round train HAA coal hopper wagon	368459			The very last of 10,702 HAA wagons built.
NER Snow Plough	Snow Plough No. 12	NER Brown
Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits Night Ferry Sleeping Car	3972	CIWL Blue
High Speed Freight Vehicle	HSFV1	Grey		This vehicle was the basis for the Class 142 train chassis.
Stockton and Darlington Railway Composite Coach (1847)	59	S&DR Brown
Stockton and Darlington Railway Composite Coach (1846)	31	S&DR Brown		Used to be displayed at Stockton station.

Images for kids

• 

  LMS Hughes Crab

• 

  LNWR Cornwall

• 

  LSWR T3 class No. 563

See also

In Spanish: Museo Locomotion para niños

• List of British railway museums
• List of transport museums
• B&O Railroad Museum (US)
• Exporail (Canada)
• Nuremberg Transport Museum (Germany)
• Workshops Rail Museum (Australia)