Station Hall will tell the story of train journeys that are special and ordinary – the once in a lifetime trip and the daily commute. All train journeys can be shaped by the people you meet. It might be a conversation with a stranger that ends when you alight the train, or a chance meeting leading to a new friendship that outlasts the journey.

This week we asked visitors to tell us (via our in-museum ticket board) about the most interesting person they’ve met on a train.

The responses varied from sentimental to humorous, with a touch of celebrity. I’ve picked out a few to share with you:

‘John Peel, who was of course, very courteous.’

‘A lady who told me my daughter was psychic!’

‘Arthur Scargill. He was eating a cheese sandwich.’

‘I met a 99 year old lady. She had spent Christmas with her niece and was travelling back to London. She told me all about the First World War and the Second World War. She worked as a nurse and a missionary.’

‘An old gentleman travelling from Scotland to London to visit an ‘elderly relative’. He was old school charming and entertaining. His cravat was fabulous!’

Visitor responses like these will be used to help us populate Station Hall with real people’s stories about working in stations and travelling by train.

These anecdotes brought to mind a set of film stills in our image collection. They are taken from a 1950s British Transport Film about a party of boot factory workers from Leicester travelling to London for a day trip.

They show a slice of life on one particular journey. I’ve selected some that really captured my imagination. What do you think is happening in them?

These ladies appear to be catching up on their gossip. The lady in the background is looking out of the window, but is she listening in?

Just visible on the right-hand side of the picture is a ‘reserved’ sign stuck to the window.  It was common for employers to organise trips for their workers and special trains were often put on for such excursions.

I wonder what tune this man is playing on his accordion?

I like to imagine that the two sisters in this family are wearing a home made dress and skirt made out of the same pair of old floral curtains.

This group are passing the time with assorted reading materials.  The gentleman in the middle seems more interested in the boy’s comic than reading his newspaper.

This couple are concentrating hard on their game of cards. The half-smoked cigarette in the gentleman’s mouth was a common sight aboard trains in this period.

Did any of these people remind you of the most interesting person you’ve met on a train?

In among the track stars and record breakers from Britain’s railways that we’re bringing to Railfest 2012, we’re well aware that one locomotive shines: LNER A4 Mallard.

It’s the fastest steam locomotive in the world, and so iconic that it even featured on an album cover by Britpop band Blur, where it is pictured roaring along beneath the caption ‘Modern Life is Rubbish’. Not sure I agree with the sentiment, but the opportunity to get the pre-war steam speed record holder together with the post-war speed record holder seemed too good to miss.

Thankfully the team that look after A4 60007 Sir Nigel Gresley have agreed to come to Railfest 2012. The festival aims to bring together as many track stars and record breakers as possible, and the agreement with the Gresley team means that plans for a steam ‘speed stars’ line-up are falling into place – given that we already have City of Truro and Flying Scotsman appearing at the show, the first ‘unofficial’100mph UK locomotive and the first ‘official’ 100mph UK locomotive respectively.

Mallard’s dash down Stoke bank in July 1938 is often mentioned, but Gresley’s run of 23 May 1959 is less well known. The Stephenson Locomotive Society’s ‘Golden Jubilee’ railtour, held in 1959, was to be one of steam’s last hurrahs in the UK. Driver and noted ‘speed merchant’ Bill Hoole, ably assisted by fireman Alf Hancox, took the eight-coach train to 112 mph before being told to ease off by Alan Pegler (no less). Pegler was there as the ‘Industry Representative’ of BR (Eastern Region) and would go on to buy Flying Scotsman four years later.

Gresley’s run is the ‘official’ post-war speed record for steam, never since surpassed. For the 400 people on board, it must have been a thrilling trip as the train actually achieved 100 mph three times on its run, and peeled off about 25 miles at 100 mph.

It’s 53 years since that record day. Won’t it be nice to see these two record breakers together?

Also, it would be great to gather anyone who was actually on that 1959 railtour for one more celebration of steam’s speed machine – the Gresley-designed A4. If you were there, let us know in the comments below or email us at nrm@nrm.org.uk.

Recently, our request for donations of luggage led us to receive this beautiful trunk that dates from the early twentieth century and originally belonged to Herman Booth of Huddersfield. We would like to say a huge thank you to the relatives of Mr Booth who donated the trunk and very kindly shared the following story with us:

“This trunk was always referred to in our family as the ‘cabin trunk’. Packing it was a major event and when full it was extremely heavy.”

“In the past it was used when our relatives were going on their annual holiday, by train. It would be collected from the house and taken to the station before departure day as the Booth family had no transport. The family numbered six – with four children all born before 1914. It was necessary to take a lot of clothes, as there were no launderettes, and no washing or drying facilities at guest houses.”

Herman Booth's initials embossed in gold paint.

“Family legend has it that on the train to holiday resorts there was a lot of snobbish ‘one-upmanship’, with those who could afford a two week holiday showing off to those just taking one week. It was always a frantic rush to find six seats together because there were no seat reservations in those days, and certainly not in second or third class!”

Original luggage label showing Blackpool as the destination, travelling by the London and North Western railway.

“The trunk was also used during the family’s house move before the First World War (in a horse drawn van, of course). It was not used for journeys after the 1930s, as the children married and left home. It stayed at home, and was used for storing spare dress fabrics. It moved with our family to various parts of the country, before we eventually settled in York. So it seems fitting for it to come to the National Railway Museum.”

Do you have a particular piece of luggage that always travels with you on train journeys? Why not tell us about it here.

The team has systematically listed the photographs, noting subject, date and other significant information. They have come across some great prints while they have been working, including snow ploughs, historic sites, images of the old railway museum, royalty and much, much more.

The group have now finished listing the prints and I have a very large pile of handwritten listings sitting on my desk waiting to be typed up! This year, two new volunteers will be joining the team to do that very thing. Once these lists are typed, we can make them available to staff and researchers in the museum.

Now that the prints are listed I am also able to rehouse the prints into archive boxes, arranged by theme, for improved storage and for their long term preservation.

Below are some examples of the images in the collection.

0-6-0 goods locomotive, 1870s

King George VI as Duke of York at Darlington

Women porters stacking grain, 1943

In previous blogs we talked about our ambition to bring Station Hall to life by using real stories. In the coming months I will be running story-gathering activities to find out about people’s experiences of travelling and working in stations.

Alongside this, we will be providing opportunities in Station Hall for visitors to share their stories. This week we installed a ticket board that asks our visitors to take a ticket and tell us about their most memorable train journey.

So far, we have had a brilliant response. I thought I’d share some of the memories with you:

“Going to Cornwall on the train as a kid, being the first one in the family to spot the sea.”

“Travelling to Venice on the Orient Express to celebrate my husband’s 60^th birthday – a boyhood dream come true.”

“Going up Snowdon on the train – in driving rain, you couldn’t see a thing.”

“Darlington –Penzance. A couple left their baby on the train.”

About one quarter of the UK rail network is still signalled using absolute block signalling. Of the three quarters that aren’t, the rules and regulations that underpin the system are based on the principles enshrined in absolute block signalling. So what better device to test the knowledge of aspirant signallers than a railway layout designed for the purpose?

When the last visitor has left and the museum is in darkness; trainee signallers from heritage railways, Network Rail, the wider rail industry and schools come to put theory into practice. Under the guidance of a Network Rail expert, the students shunt trains, run engines round, block back and practice emergency procedures.

The rules, regulations and diagrams come to life, as trains speed around the layout; bell codes describe the trains and signals control their movement. The added difficulty of being able to hear everybody’s block instruments as well as your own puts an extra layer of stress on the would-be signallers.

The two-hour training session is soon over, and as the would-be signallers head off into the night, the L&Y falls silent… until the next class.

I’m Ellen Tait and I work as an Interpretation Developer, putting together exhibitions for our new Art Gallery space.

Last Tuesday 40 members of the Art Fund came to visit our current exhibition. My colleague and I gave them a talk on our art collection, why we built an art gallery and some of the background to the current exhibition. They were surprised to learn how many artworks are in the collections and headed off excited afterwards to look at The Art of Advertising, an exhibition of posters by Royal Academy artists from the 1920s.

In the afternoon I got together for a lively debate with colleagues about the next exhibition for the art gallery. Fear and Fascination: Art from the Dawn of the Railways will explore artist’s reactions to the advent of railways in Britain and opens in February next year.

Surrounded by images of rare art works from the collection created between 1830 and 1870, we talked about how to create the feeling of seeing the massive earthworks it took to build the railways when you had never experienced anything on that scale before. We are sure visitors to the museum in February will get a real sense of the awe and anxiety the railway inspired in people through the artists’ viewpoints.

A while ago I blogged about our request for donations of luggage. A whole heap of luggage has come in from lofts and cupboards across Yorkshire. Before we can put any of the luggage to good use in Station Hall we need to treat it with a pesticide to get rid of any pests that might be dormant in the fabric. As those of you who have visited Station Hall will know, there are lots of carriages with upholstered seats on display in there, and one of our biggest challenges is protecting the fabrics from moths and other bugs.

This morning our conservation team started to de-bug the luggage. Here’s some of the donations so far awaiting their treatment.

And here’s the luggage returned (sort of) to its rightful home – in the guard’s van of our Southern Railway motor brake. As you can see the cases are opened up so that the inside surfaces get treated too.

After this photo was taken the pesticide smoke ‘bomb’ was lit, the doors quickly closed, and we hastily retreated! The luggage will stay in there for at least 48 hours – after that it should get the all clear to go in to Station Hall.

Can you unlock what is being said? To encourage you, we’ve arranged a fantastic prize – a behind-the-scenes tour of Search Engine, or a framed reproduction of an engineering drawing showing either Mallard, Duchess of Hamilton or Flying Scotsman. The first person to comment on this post with an accurate transcription of the letter (in the eyes of the judges) will win. Terms and conditions

You’ve got a week to post us your deciphered text: on 5 December 2011, we’ll post a full transcription ourselves. Good luck! (You can click the images for a larger view.)

The Hackworth archive consists of the papers of Timothy Hackworth. The archive is held here at the museum and is available for consultation through Search Engine. This cataloguing project has been made possible by The National Cataloguing Grants Programme for Archives.

Update 5 December: Thank you for all the entries to the competition: the winner will be contacted in the next couple of days. I’ve added a full correct transcription to the comments below. And here’s some information you may find interesting about the letter:

• Timothy Hackworth Jr wrote this letter to his sister Jenny, Jane Hackworth (later Young). The letter was sent to Vilvorde, Belgium, where Jane was at school.
• The family lived in Soho House, which was close to their business Soho Works, Shildon. Shildon reminds Timothy of ‘London parks on Sunday’. The family were surrounded by railway lines and men working, thus the ’spoil bank’ – which was a pile of waste materials.
• The ‘Company’ refers to the Stockton and Darlington Railway Company. Timothy remarks on them building a reservoir at the top of the hill near Soho works, with a light-hearted comment: ‘we hope they do not mean to drown us out of the place’.
• From Timothy’s account Soho Works appears to be successful. But at this time adverts had been submitted showing the works were up for sale. Timothy attempted to buy Soho, but his bid was rejected. The works were sold to the Stockton and Darlington Railway Company in 1855.
• The letter refers to Timothy’s sister Elizabeth ‘Lizzy’ Holmes and her children, and another sister Prudence ‘Pru’ Hackworth (later Nightingale). ‘Mrs John’ is the wife of his brother John Wesley Hackworth. The letter also refers to John Wesley’s children.
• “Our people are very well with the exception of ‘Mrs A’” refers to Timothy’s eldest sister Ann Ambler, who was committed to a mental asylum around this time.

Six teams from across the country competed – they each had exactly the same pieces of kit to use, and they were randomly assigned a train to light.

On Friday night the students’ designs were judged by a panel which included four members of staff (including myself)  and an independent lighting designer. The students were judged on:

• how theatrical their lighting scheme was
• how well their scheme showcased the stories of the vehicles
• how easy it would be to maintain and run their scheme
• how well they had thought about the conservation of the vehicles
• how well they had thought about our visitors’ needs

The winner on the Friday night was the team from Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts, who lit Maude, the Stanton wagon and the LNWR box van. They were the judges’ winners because their scheme was spectacular from all viewing positions, they had really thought about the stories of the vehicle and they used the environment around the vehicles as a really effective backdrop to their scheme. They had also paid attention to conservation, health and safety and the sustainability of their scheme.

We weren’t the only ones who got our say though – when the event opened to the public on Saturday night we asked them to vote for their favourite. Their winner was the team from Rose Bruford College who lit Gladstone and Queen Victoria’s saloon. As well as casting their vote on Saturday, we asked visitors what they thought of the displays. Here are images of each team’s effort, along with just some of the many comments that we received.

Team 1, Rose Bruford College – Midland Spinner, dining carriage, sleeping carriage, 6-wheeled coach and WCJS Travelling Post Office

“Simple, but effective.”

“Subtle lighting. Atmospheric. Brilliant.”

Team 2, Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts – Maude, Stanton wagon, LNWR box van

“The more I looked, the more I saw. Subtle yet striking use of light and shadows. Colours all tied together and sympathetic to the train. Outstanding.”

“It captured the power of freight at night.”

Team 3, Rose Bruford College – Gladstone, Queen Victoria’s saloon

“Brought it to life.”

“It had the ‘wow’ factor when you entered.”

Team 4, York College – MR ‘Crab’, royal support coach, King Edward’s saloon

“There was an illusion of movement.”

“Soft opulent colour evoking comfort, misty atmosphere giving an air of mystery.”

Team 5, Amersham College – LSWR M7, LSWR tri-composite carriage, BR fish van, GWR fruit van, GNR brake van

“Reminds me of the sun setting.”

“Romantic theme, a reminder of the film Brief Encounter.”

Team 6, Rose Bruford College – J52, BR banana van, United Dairies milk tanker, PLM ferry van, LMS brake van

“I liked the way the engine was lit so that it looked hot.”

“Simple and effective.”

Finally, congratulations to all the teams involved – I’m sure you’ll agree that they all came up with some really beautiful and inspiring ways of bringing our collection to life.

See more Locos in a Different Light photos