The British Train Museum

One of the highlights of the York trip was a visit to the British Train Museum.









It basically charts the entire history and evolution of trains in Britain and really throughout the world.








It is an amazing museum that I highly recommend to everyone. It contains tons of old trains as well as a mockup of the Eurostar and a bullet train from Japan.



When I worked on The Polar Express, I learned a little bit about trains and became a bit of a train affectionato. The museum contains a train built in England shipped to China, then returned to England that very much resembles the 4-8-4 Pere Marquet train in Chicago that was the basis for the Polar Express.



One of the main highlights of the museum is the Hogwarts Express train from the Harry Potter films. It is a working train, and this is where they store it between films.

There is certainly a romance with trains in the British culture, and I can understand why. It is great to see these trains so lovingly preserved for people to enjoy.

The museum also houses the largest collection of royal train coaches in Europe.





It has the coaches of the royal family going back to Queen Victoria, who was the first royal to really use trains extensively to travel through her empire. It is a victorian marvel of jewel tones and tassels.



After the museum, we wandered over to the York Brewery to try some of their beer. I think our tourguide had been sampling a bit of the beer himself.





From there we went to The Masons Arm pub for a traditional British Roast Dinner.




I couldn't let Luis and Leeza leave London without having experienced this.







The pub was very charming, and the food was delicious. I had the Roast Beef with Yorkshire Pudding (in Yorkshire no less).






Alas, it was time to take our own train back to London. We arrived there just in time for the Tube Workers to go on strike and shutdown travel throughout in the whole city.

Ah. . . the joys of trains.