{"id":5056,"date":"2026-07-19T16:34:46","date_gmt":"2026-07-19T20:34:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/relativerest.com\/?p=5056"},"modified":"2026-07-19T16:34:46","modified_gmt":"2026-07-19T20:34:46","slug":"nostalgic-visit-to-the-national-railway-museum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/relativerest.com\/?p=5056","title":{"rendered":"Nostalgic visit to the National Railway Museum"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p style=\"font-size:22px\"><strong>Sunday, July 19 2026<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"\/Tripmapper\/Mapview2.aspx?DataFile=UKNorth\/2026_07_19_Hathersage&amp;Video=PDW-OohLpJY\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"\/Tripmapper\/Mapview2.aspx?DataFile=UKNorth\/2026_07_19_Hathersage&amp;Video=PDW-OohLpJY\">Road video and map<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I started the last touristy day of my road trip with a wonderful visit to the <em>National Railway Museum<\/em> 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 <em>British Rail<\/em>. Britain is proud of its industrial history and, particularly, many of its early achievements in railway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>The oldest continually operating  railway in the world (Middleton Railway, Leeds)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>First steam railway journey (Merthyr Tydfil, Wales, 1804)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>First public steam railway (Stockton and Darlington railway, England, 1825)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>George Stephenson who designed and built &#8220;Rocket&#8221;, 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.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"760\" height=\"761\" src=\"http:\/\/relativerest.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/National-Rail-Museum-Rocket.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-5058\" srcset=\"http:\/\/relativerest.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/National-Rail-Museum-Rocket.jpg 760w, http:\/\/relativerest.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/National-Rail-Museum-Rocket-300x300.jpg 300w, http:\/\/relativerest.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/National-Rail-Museum-Rocket-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 760px) 100vw, 760px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">George Stephenson&#8217;s Rocket. It was redesigned and repainted over several years after it successfully won the Rainhill trials by operating at speed for 70 miles (113 Km).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"760\" height=\"757\" src=\"http:\/\/relativerest.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/National-Rail-Museum-Rocket-Replica.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-5059\" srcset=\"http:\/\/relativerest.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/National-Rail-Museum-Rocket-Replica.jpg 760w, http:\/\/relativerest.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/National-Rail-Museum-Rocket-Replica-300x300.jpg 300w, http:\/\/relativerest.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/National-Rail-Museum-Rocket-Replica-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 760px) 100vw, 760px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">This is a cutaway replica of the original Rocket design built in 1935to show it&#8217;s features.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"760\" height=\"576\" src=\"http:\/\/relativerest.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/National-Rail-Museum-Mallard.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-5060\" srcset=\"http:\/\/relativerest.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/National-Rail-Museum-Mallard.jpg 760w, http:\/\/relativerest.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/National-Rail-Museum-Mallard-300x227.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 760px) 100vw, 760px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Many famous locomotives are on display. This is <em>Mallard<\/em> which holds the speed record for a steam locomotive pulling a train at 126 mph (202 Km\/h).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The world famous <em>Flying Scotsman<\/em> 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 <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Other things that triggered long lost memories were<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"760\" height=\"430\" src=\"http:\/\/relativerest.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/National-Railway-Museum-Signals.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-5061\" srcset=\"http:\/\/relativerest.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/National-Railway-Museum-Signals.jpg 760w, http:\/\/relativerest.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/National-Railway-Museum-Signals-300x170.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 760px) 100vw, 760px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">I had completely forgotten how common these semaphore signals were before the days of electrification.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"760\" height=\"834\" src=\"http:\/\/relativerest.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/National-Railway-Museum-Platform-Tickets.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-5062\" srcset=\"http:\/\/relativerest.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/National-Railway-Museum-Platform-Tickets.jpg 760w, http:\/\/relativerest.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/National-Railway-Museum-Platform-Tickets-273x300.jpg 273w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 760px) 100vw, 760px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Until I saw these I had forgotten the fun of paying 1 penny to be able to go on a station platform in order to watch the trains and try to spot a locomotive I had not seen previously.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Since today is the World Cup final I was intrigued to discover a link between the railways and Manchester United.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"582\" height=\"1024\" src=\"http:\/\/relativerest.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/National-Rail-Museum-Football-Clubs-582x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-5063\" srcset=\"http:\/\/relativerest.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/National-Rail-Museum-Football-Clubs-582x1024.jpg 582w, http:\/\/relativerest.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/National-Rail-Museum-Football-Clubs-171x300.jpg 171w, http:\/\/relativerest.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/National-Rail-Museum-Football-Clubs.jpg 760w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 582px) 100vw, 582px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>I left the museum, having had a great time, in order to visit my final scenic area for this trip, the <em>Peak District<\/em> in Derbyshire. I had planned a route that allowed me to drive over its most iconic feature, <em>Snake Pass<\/em>, 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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 &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/relativerest.com\/?p=5056\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Nostalgic visit to the National Railway Museum<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[102],"tags":[40],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/relativerest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5056"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/relativerest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/relativerest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/relativerest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/relativerest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5056"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/relativerest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5056\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5071,"href":"http:\/\/relativerest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5056\/revisions\/5071"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/relativerest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/relativerest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/relativerest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}