Stafford & York Train Museum

Super

Because I have a tendency for the strange and unusual, I picked up a Stafford cheaply from Wally World. I want to customize and deface him so I had to do some interesting research. He is from the real North Staffordshire Railway hence his name. I always wondered how a train could be made of wood and the answer is that this is a 1917 (hence his number) electric shunting engine that gets its power from batteries and his top speed is 11 miles per hour. How good could battery's have been in 1917??? I know that most of you probably already know this from the Thomas series or Ucwepn's Video but I didn't and found researching him to be quite interesting.<img src="/assets/files/placeholder.png" alt="(missing)">

frances2112

learned he was electric when I saw this at TRU http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=19130456&cp=&parentPage=search

Tramp

Great info super, it's nice to hear about these engines, I'll be honest I knew nothing about him other than he was a pretty funky looking, I suppose with him being battery operated he is the most realistic of all the engines! I'm looking forward to the deface, are you replacing his face with wooden planks?

Super

Yes, that is the plan Tramp. He does have a lot of room inside so I am toying with the idea of also adding LED's using a voltage generator which will be my first attempt with that but I am worried that they may be too bright for me in which case I will go to incandescent. But first I must finish the custom Mod I am working on now.

Super

In this actual picture this train looks so much smaller that I first thought. It is currently displayed at the National Railroad Museum in York, UK. By the looks of the web site, this museum is a fantastic place to visit for fans of trains.<img src="/assets/files/placeholder.png" alt="(missing)">

chrisjo

Super wrote
By the looks of the web site, this museum is a fantastic place to visit for fans of trains.

Ha! I can still remember my first visit to York Railway Museum, which I estimate was probably in about 1962. My Grandmother lived in York, so I was sent up there to stay (from London) in the school holidays in the days when it was normal for parents to put their kids on the train, ask the guard to keep an eye on them, and let them to get on with it. Changed times eh?

I also used to visit the engine sheds in York, all steam then of course. You walked up to the gate, spoke politely to "a man", and were told you could wander about wherever you liked as long as you kept out of the way of anything that was either moving or hot!

Super

Those were the days eh Chrisjo? Hey kids...here's a box of dynamite, you can play with it but just don't light it!

Tramp

So this is a bit of an old thread. But today, with it being the Easter holidays, Me, my wife, mum and x3 kids decided to visit York train museum, I thought I'd share some of my photos from the day. I don't really need to say it but whilst I was walking around I was thinking 'the guys on BPT's would love this!'

We decided to make a day of it and travel on public transport. It was great, I very rarely use public transport but it was a really nice experience!

Anyway on with the pictures

These are the engines we might not recognise but there are some we might.......

And the engines we might know,

Emily,

Mighty Mac

Neville

Stafford,

Spencer,

And that was it in the museum,

But by using public transport we got to ride the virgin intercity

We rode this one home! I also took a picture of the suburban DMU that we used between the mainline and my home town, although I don't think there is a plarail/Tomy/trackmaster version

A great day of trains!

Super

That is totally awesome. What a great day trip for you and the family. Thank you so much for thinking of us and sharing your day and the pictures. That is a fantastic museum, such a great amount of beautiful classic. Is that a Flying Scotsman?

Tramp

Yes the flying Scotsman is on display, but unfortunatley it wasn't there today. I think because it's such an icon they send it all over the country for different events, it is due back later this week. I think you were looking at the GWR 4000 class https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/GWR_4000_Class_4003_Lode_Star

A nice engine....... But they all were!

They have some workshops on site where they do the work you can walk thorough a balcony area and see what's going on

In this picture the train in the bottom left is 'sir Nigel gresley'

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/LNER_Class_A4_4498_Sir_Nigel_Gresley

It's nice to see them going through the restoration process

Nigels

I saw Sir Nigel Gresley along with a whole bunch of others of its class a few years back at the Doncaster works - one of their then regular Steam events. A lot of the trains including Nigel were all running under steam as well, the sounds and smells of these locomotives really makes them seem almost alive and human. I can see where the reverend got his idea from for the books for sure.

On that occasion I spent several days up there with my late father and we visited the York museum also, they have some incredible exhibits there including a working replica of Stephensons Rocket, not to mention (well at that time) a genuine Japanese Shinkensan - mind you I have to admit the cockpit was a lot smaller than I was expecting, the doors were tiny lol...

The other location that is a lot closer to me - I mean not much more than 30 minutes drive away is the Bluebell Railway, the home of STEPNEY, I've seen him running on numerous occasions along with his cousin whose name I can't recall off the top of my head. They've got many locomotives there that run regularly including a Battle of Britain class loco if you like the big engines. But the highlight for anybody here is that it is possible to get to actually ride on the footplate of Stepney for a fee 🙂 I'll have to dig out some pictures from my visits there - I've not been for quite a while as after I lost my father for a long time it was too painful to return there. But I think I should soon go back as its not so hard now... 🙂

ripley802

Very cool. Great information. Definately a place to visit someday.