Sunday, July 19 2026

Road video and map

I started the last touristy day of my road trip with a wonderful visit to the National Railway Museum in York. I have enjoyed visiting several railway museums in the US but grew up in the 1950s and 60s in England while steam was still the driving force behind the passenger network of British Rail. Britain is proud of its industrial history and, particularly, many of its early achievements in railway.

• The oldest continually operating railway in the world (Middleton Railway, Leeds)
• First steam railway journey (Merthyr Tydfil, Wales, 1804)
• First public steam railway (Stockton and Darlington railway, England, 1825)
• George Stephenson who designed and built “Rocket”, the first high speed (10 mph, 16 Km/h) steam engine that, in 1829, provided the foundational template for almost all steam locomotives built since.

The world famous Flying Scotsman belongs to the museum but was not on display. After it was fully restored in 2016 it tours the country during the summer pulling heritage train rides

I was surprised by the nostalgia I felt while visiting. My local rail line to London was steam operated until1963 and we used it to go on family trips to the capital as well as to get to our annual holiday destination before my father owned a car.

Other things that triggered long lost memories were

Since today is the World Cup final I was intrigued to discover a link between the railways and Manchester United.

I left the museum, having had a great time, in order to visit my final scenic area for this trip, the Peak District in Derbyshire. I had planned a route that allowed me to drive over its most iconic feature, Snake Pass, on my way to my inn tonight. However, my plans were thwarted by a traffic accident on Friday which resulted in a car fire that started a severe wildfire and closed the A628 road I needed to approach Snake Pass from the north. I therefore had to drive over the pass from the south and then turn around to return over the pass to get to my destination. As usual, the best images of the pass can be found in the road video.

Tomorrow I have no tourist activities planned as I am driving straight to Northampton to spend time with my niece, her son and her fiance. They are getting married on Wednesday. I will post some final thoughts in a few days together with the final road video.