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 is an exciting railway museum located in Shildon, County Durham, England. It used to be called Locomotion the National Railway Museum at Shildon. In 2017, its name changed when it joined the Science Museum Group, a family of museums that celebrate science and history.

Discovering Locomotion: A Railway Adventure

This amazing museum opened its doors on October 22, 2004. The then Prime Minister, Tony Blair, who was also a local Member of Parliament, officially opened it. Building the museum cost about £11.3 million. It was created from the older "Timothy Hackworth Victorian Railway Museum."

Locomotion was built to attract visitors to the small town of Shildon. It was hoped that 60,000 people would visit each year. However, the museum quickly became much more popular! In its first six months, 94,000 people came to explore. Locomotion was even chosen as one of the top five places for the Gulbenkian Prize. This is a very important arts award in the United Kingdom.

As part of big plans for the National Railway Museum, a new building was finished recently. This new space holds even more trains from the national collection. Also, parts of the original museum, like the old coal drops, have been fixed up and look great.

Exploring the Museum Site

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

Shildon became a major center for building railway wagons. The Shildon wagon works were very important until they closed in 1984.

The Shildon train station was also rebuilt and made modern when the museum was constructed. It is right next to the museum's special train line. Trains from the Tees Valley Line, operated by Northern, stop here.

Museum Highlights and Trail

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

Your journey starts at the old 19th-century welcome building. The famous Sans Pareil engine used to be displayed here. Now, it's in the main Collection Building.

The second stop is Timothy Hackworth's house. Inside, you can learn about Shildon's history through fun activities. Next is Soho, a stone building that was once 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 of Shildon were delivered here by horse and cart. Look closely at the building walls; some parts are made from old stone blocks that were once railway sleepers!

The railway station's parcel office is the next part of the trail. Across the tracks, you can see the old stables. These were for the horses that pulled early wagons on the railway lines. The coal drops were a place where steam locomotives got their fuel. Wagons full of coal were pulled up a ramp. Then, the coal was "dropped" down wooden chutes into the train's tender below.

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

Amazing Exhibits and Locomotives

Locomotion is home to many incredible locomotives from the National Collection. This includes a copy of Timothy Hackworth's Sans Pareil. The original Sans Pareil engine is also at Shildon. This engine was built to compete in the famous Rainhill Trials. These trials helped decide which engine would run the passenger railway between Liverpool and Manchester. After 175 years away, the original Sans Pareil returned to Shildon and is now displayed in the Collection building.

A very famous train, LNER Class A4 4468 Mallard, was temporarily displayed here. It usually lives at the National Railway Museum in York. In 2014, thousands of visitors came to see five sister A4 locomotives. These included 60008 "Dwight D Eisenhower" and 60010 "Dominion of Canada". They had traveled 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. Here you can see unique trains like the prototype APT-E and Deltic units. The museum also has a wind turbine that helps provide power. There's even a special biodiesel bus to take visitors around the site.

If you want to see a specific train, it's a good idea to check with the museum beforehand.

Steam Locomotives on Display

Steam Locomotives

Class	Number (and name if applicable)	Livery	Image	Current Status	Additional Notes
Hunslet Austerity 0-6-0ST	3850 Juno	Green		Static	Originally 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 first "Black Five" engine 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)	Now moved to a museum in Doncaster.
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			Now on display at the National Railway Museum, York.
South African Class 7A 4-8-0	390	Black		Static	Cape Gauge, now on display at the National Railway Museum, York.
LNWR Improved Precedent Class	790 Hardwicke	LNWR Lined Black		Static
Andrew Barclay fireless locomotive	Imperial No. 1	Imperial Paper Mills Green		Static

Diesel and 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 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 special gas turbine train.
Sentinel Diesel-hydraulic Shunter	H001	RMS Locotec Blue		Static	Originally for a brewery, then rebuilt for power stations.
Wickham Trolley	960209	BR Brown		Static
Southern Railway Waterloo & City line Shunter (1898)	75S	L&SWR Salmon		Static

Diesel and 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 on apron, one car behind 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 and 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 (prototype from Darlington).
BR merry-go-round train HAA coal hopper wagon	368459			The last of 10,702 HAA wagons built (from Shildon).
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		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		Previously 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)