Whilst you're at Donington, nip down the road To this one;
www.nthc.co.uk/
This is the Northen end of the Great Central Railway, arguably one of the finest preserved railways in the country. Excellent collection of vintage buses.
BTW, up until 22nd October the Loughborough end of the GCR is host to "Tornado", the first main line locomotive to be built in the Uk since "Evening Star" in 1960.
saw that thing being built, it's awesome.
FWIW I much prefer working railways, etc to static museums. I went to York once, beautiful stuff but somehow it's not the same when they're just sitting there.
Edited by Harleyman on 30/09/2008 at 23:35
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FWIW I much prefer working railways etc to static museums.
Working locos on preserved lines can reduce me to tears of despair and frustration. Try riding behind an A4 pacific at 30 mph on a preserved line. Its feels strangled, rough, a caged beast.
Ride behind the same engine at 100mph on mainline - Now THAT is working.
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Did a season firing at North Yorkshire Moors.
1 in 49 from a standing start with eight on; that ain't exactly a skive either!
Know what you mean though; some of the preserved lines (Kent and East Sussex, NYMR, Severn Valley) have the gradients to make their locos work a little; just like old cars, a bit of a thrash every now and then doen't do them any harm, in fact it does a bit of good!
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Couple more north of the border, although not necessarily based on the car, and not always open all year round.
Glasgow Vintage Vehicle Trust mostly provide a home for buses in various states of preservation, more of a working garage for restorers than an actual museum, but they have a very popular open day with vintage buses running from the town centre and the city's main transport museum to their premises in Bridgeton in the East End of the city. Funnily enough, that open day is less than two weeks away, on Oct 12th:
www.gvvt.org/index.html
Also mainly focussed on buses is the Scottish Vintage Bus Museum, based in Lathalmond, near Dunfermline. They're open most Sundays from Apr-Oct, with special bus running days and other occasional events:
www.busweb.co.uk/svbm/
Not so specifically transport, but with many transport items, and a running tramway, the Summerlee Heritage Museum in Coatbridge has only just re-opened after a two year refurbishment, and charts the industrial heritage of North Lanarkshire, Monklands and the central belt of Scotland. Looks to be quite a place now:
tinyurl.com/46ausb
Finally, slightly more tenuous, but anyone with an interest in vintage farm vehicles should visit the National Museum of Rural Life in Kittochside, near East Kilbride - nice collection of tractors, combines and other agricultural vehicles:
www.nms.ac.uk/museumofrurallifehomepage.aspx
One final thing, Glasgow is currently building a new transport museum down by the Clyde, so anyone wanting to see it before it gets interactive and funky the way modern museums do should make haste!
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Errm, how about Toy Museums??
There's one under the station at Brighton which is devoted almost entirely to "transport" toys, loads of cars, trains, boats and airplanes all in one place... doesn't 'alf take you back!!
www.brightontoymuseum.co.uk/index.html
Edited by b308 on 01/10/2008 at 09:42
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If transport is defined as a vehicle for moving people or goods, then you could do worse than the very enjoyable Leicester Space Museum, which has the added advantage of a most impressive Victorian Pumping Station nearby too.
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Errm, how about Toy Museums??
Problem with toy museums is that visiting of any big toy shop (eg Hamleys) is usually more enjoyable :)
Off topic:
I wonder why Lego has stopped producing wonderful Technic sets like 8880 super car, 8448 street car sensation, 8479 barcode truck etc. Most current Lego sets are rubbish.
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North of the Border again - dont think anyone has mentioned the Museum of Flight, East Lothian. A Vulcan & a Concorde amongst others.
And for toys - Museum of Childhood in Edinburgh - why do they have Dinky toys like mine in a museum?
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Problem with toy museums is that visiting of any big toy shop (eg Hamleys) is usually more enjoyable :)
Nooo, its much more fun seeing the stuff you used to play with when you were a kid... I just get depressed in toy shops by the prices!
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Nooo its much more fun seeing the stuff you used to play with when you were a kid...
I get that terrible feeling of wanting to re-buy some of the things I had as a kid (I just manage to resist). Had some great Dinky cars, lorries and tanks, many of which were lost, broken or mum gave them away when I left home.
And my early 70s Goldfinger Aston DB5 - why did I paint it in garish Humrol blue enamel?
Die cast cars were much better quality when I was a kid than they are now..
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Re the other point I suspect that its to do with the general "dumbing down" of toys these days - same has happened to Meccano.
I remember watching a recent programme on toys by James May where he gave a load of the old style meccano bits and a picture of a crane and asked them to build it - none of them even got close... I know that in our days at school we'd have been able to make it - kids back then were more "practical" with their hands, nowadays its all "plug and play" and if it gets too technical they move off...
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Yes, I'll second that, my 5 year old son is just getting into Lego and is mad on farm machinery, I've watched every 'tractor ted' video about 8 billion times. I knocked him up a reasonable looking combine harvester from scratch in about half an hour; my thirteen year old daughter was absolutley amazed I could make something from Lego with no instructions.
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Well if you are in Northern Italy, can I suggest the Mille Miglia museum, Saint Eufemia just outside Brescia. A wonderful museum that not only celebrates the race(s) but also the politics and social & political scene around each race (fascinated Mrs AE) and not at all bashful about fascism and Mussolini. Suitably reverent about Stirling Moss's victory and of course a Mercedes 300sl on display. Out of season it was empty but had no cafe or restaurant open
www.museomillemiglia.it/defaulteng.asp
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St helens in Lancashire had a great bus museum, very big, run by volunteers. It shut down for yonks because of elf n safety, they couldn't afford a new roof or something. Kids could clamber onto 70's double deckers and mess with the pedals getting a tttsssssssss from the air brakes. anyone know if it's reopened?
I believe the anglia has gone from liverpool museum, as well as the entrance\at the top of the steps. Not inclusive enough. Further comments self-censored.
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Haynes, the book publishers, have a car museum at Sparkford near RNAS Yeovilton
Imperial War Museum alternative collection at former RAF Wroughton
Imperial War Museum Duxford for aircraft.
Motor bike museum near Birmingham, lovingly restored after a really bad fire.
Heritage Centre at RAF Gaydon
Sorry if this duplicates other input, I couldn't wade thru the previous 50 posts to check!
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"Motor bike museum near Birmingham, lovingly restored after a really bad fire."
www.nationalmotorcyclemuseum.co.uk
AS beat me to it - been there for business before and after the fire (events nothing to do with the location mind). First time was ages ago but included being allowed to wander.
There is a transport museum in Manchester. (www.gmts.co.uk )
Edited by rtj70 on 16/11/2008 at 21:20
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Myreton Motor Museum about 15 miles east out of Edinburgh towards North Berwick
www.aberlady.org/Myreton.html
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I don't know if these have been mentioned:
RAF Cosford - free entry, big museum with lots of planes, good Cold War exhibit, nice cafe:
www.rafmuseum.org.uk/cosford/index.cfm
Coventry transport museum - again free, small cafe, lots of nice old cars to look at.
www.transport-museum.com/
Better still, get a £9 room at Travelodge and have a weekend away. Shrewsbury Bayston Hill is good - near the park and ride for town and go to Cosford the next morning.
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