Summer 2024 issue 188
 

If I may be permitted, I will take this opportunity to introduce myself. My name is Michael Rigg and I have been an Information Point Volunteer at the NRM for some 28 years now. I give tours of the Museum as well as of the cabs of Flying Scotsman and Mallard. I have had the privilege of being an FNRM Trustee since 2023 and have now taken on an additional role as one of the editors of the Friends Review. I have a wardrobe full of hats! We are delighted to announce that Dame Mary Archer DBE has accepted an invitation to become a Vice-president of the Friends. As most of you will know, Dame Mary was chair of the Science Museum Group for nine years (the maximum period allowed under government rules) - a period distinguished by many achievements, not least including gaining government approval for the Railway Museum’s Masterplan, involving the major expansion work now coming to fruition at both York and Shildon. She has held, and continues to hold, many other senior posts in public life too numerous to mention here. We are honoured to have Dame Mary as a Vicepresident and welcome her to the role. There is also news of another of our Vicepresidents. Shortly before we went to press, it was announced that Peter Hendy (Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill to give him his full title) has been invited to join the government as Minister for Rail. Having been chairman of Network Rail, not to mention the NRM Advisory Board, he will bring a wealth of experience to this vital role. We extend our congratulations, and wish him every success. One of the challenges for the volunteer on the NRM’s shop floor as far as visitors are concerned is to change ‘negatives’ into ‘positives’. The leading ‘negative’ is the Station Hall being closed, another is the lack of access to locomotive cabs. But by carefully explaining in more detail what the exciting ‘Masterplan’vision for the future is, together with reassuring that all this is being pushed forward with maximum speed possible, the volunteer’s enthusiasm can indeed change most of those negatives into positives. The Friends’ rebranding has been a priority for some time now and the results of much hard work can be seen on the cover of this very issue with other evidence starting to appear in the Great Hall. The Museum team have been very helpful and supportive in the creation of this rebranding for which the Friends are most grateful. Karen Baker’s update of progress to reopen Station Hall is both exciting and enlightening. When visitors are once more welcomed into Station Hall from April next year, it will be so easy to think that the transformation they see has happened with the wafting of some magic wand, but Rebecca and Karen’s report gives us a tantalising inkling of just how much meticulous preparation and sheer hard graft is going on for that transformation. Anthony Coulls begins his Rolling Stock Report with the exclamation “All change” and gives us a detailed outline of what has gone into Locomotion “New Hall”, the careful crafting of the story it tells and the military-like planning which has gone into its creation. What an exciting project for the Friends to be involved in! It might be thought that all the attention has recently focused on Locomotion, but Anthony's’ exclamation “All Change” is happening in York too. The reappearance of both Henry Oakley and Cheltenham in the Great Hall within the last few weeks has been very exciting, however, arguably the most exciting development in Great Hall has to be the occasional reopening of the cab of Mallard and heartfelt thanks must go to Katrina Ferguson, Tony Oldfield and their team for many months of hard work to enable this to happen. After much anticipation, the FNRM Website’s Members Area is now up and running. This exciting development offers members exclusive access to a veritable treasure trove of information. Mel Draper and his team fully deserve an enormous vote of thanks from us all. As always, David Thomas has put together a cracking programme of not-to-be-missed Evening Talks at the NRM, which are available to members all over the country to enjoy via the Zoom link. Thank you once more David; the phrase “putting together” hardly reflects the sheer amount of work necessary for this achievement. Together with our ever-popular usual features, a menu of very interesting articles, which include contributions from Mike Peart “Cattle by Rail”, Tony Lawton “Railways and the Law” and Martin Higginson “Ward Lock Red Guides”. Between the two sites of the National Railway Museum it has been announced that the Rail Vehicle Moves Team has now carried out their 1000th move since the beginning of Masterplan. Yet more exciting news is that, based on reviews and ratings over the last twelve months on Tripadvisor, the NRM is among the top 10% of things to do WORLDWIDE! The Trustees of the Friends had a brainstorming “Awayday” on 3 July to discuss where the Friends organisation was now and how best it could be developed in the future. A major challenge is to increase the membership numbers and ideas from all members are always welcome. More news about this will follow over time. The editors hope that the number of times the word ‘exciting’ has appeared in the above has underlined the fact that this is truly an ‘exciting’ time to get involved in this worldclass organisation where it’s most definitely “all happening”. The maximum cost of membership of the Friends is £28 per year…......or 50p a week…..….or one cup of coffee in a favourite high street coffee shop once every 7 weeks……! So we put down a challenge: for every member to enrol just one other person before the appearance of the Friends Review No.192 in Summer 2025. The reward? - the promise that there will be no “excitings” in the editorial of the next issue!