Seaside in the City
Article published on 20 July 2010
Who says sandcastles are just for the beach? This summer the National Railway Museum (NRM) will be bringing the sand and all the fun of the seaside to York for the holidays.
With so many people choosing to holiday in the UK this year, the NRM wanted to make sure that its visitors have the chance to enjoy a traditional beach holiday without having to travel to the coast.
The Museum will be putting conventional sand castles to shame with an amazing sand sculpture in the South Yard, where visitors will be taken back to an era of travelling to the seaside by steam.
City of Truro, a locomotive well known for steaming passengers to the Cornish coast, will be pulling steam rides. Visitors will get the chance dress up and get their photograph taken in 1930's costume, take a ride on the miniature railway and play giant games in the outdoors where they can bring a picnic or enjoy a summer BBQ snack.
Explosive science shows, funfair rides, lively theatre performances and brand new storytelling sessions about the famous Royal Carriages will keep children of all ages entertained throughout the summer. They can even win their very own giant garden game if they take part in the Museum's sizzling summer trail.
To celebrate Yorkshire Day there will be even more seaside fun on 31 July and 1 August when Punch and Judy will be entertaining the crowds and visitors might even see a donkey or two.
The NRM is also celebrating the 175th anniversary of the Great Western Railways which promoted leisure trips along its route by presenting itself as ‘The Holiday Line'. A new exhibition ‘Great Western Railway Reflections' is on display within Search Engine, the NRM's research and archive centre, between 28 May and 1 November. Here you can find out more about one of the most well known railway companies in the world through the Museum's collections of small objects, posters and paintings which have been used to explore the image of the GWR through the technology, advertising and paraphernalia it produced.
To find out more about summer at the NRM visit www.nrm.org.uk/summer.
*small charge applies. Occasionally rides may need to be cancelled or pulled by a different locomotive.
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