A Great Central new outstation for Leicester

Something looking more positive which the February dated Railway Magazine covers is the development of a plan for another outstation like Shildon but at Leicester. This is headlined as a £10 million development covering up to 50 new jobs and handling 200,000 visitors a year. Paul Kirkman current museum director has given his blessing to the development of the scheme's funding package. As with Shildon, this will be a partnership. In this case with the Great Central Railway at Leicester North station and with Leicester City Council. Being of a certain age I remember a previous attempt perhaps 40 years ago when National Collection items spent some years in store in Wigston Roundhouse pending a museum development then. I think what actually happened was that Leicester developed the Abbey Pumping Station project and at least some of the items in store wound up at the Midland Railway Centre?

It is worth bearing in mind that if this happened, the NRM would have substantial on the ground presence at York, Shildon, Swindon and Leicester. In the round it would certainly assuage those who worry about the "northocentric" nature of the NRM, I don't. At some point however, you wonder when collecting mania on large objects will encounter a brick wall. Despite Shildon a sizeable chunk of NRM collection is at places like Kineton in secure store. The Leicester development should be an exciting and positive scheme if it assists in getting all the NRM collection into public areas. But will we in 10 years be seeing yet another outstation? My own take for some time is that increasingly the need is for the NRM to be a backstop in preservation management. Apart from the icons let the private sector take the load and intervene by the state only when a single figure survivor is threatened.

Seeing the financial details of a Shildon would be interesting for instance. How much does it cost the NRM each year? How much does Durham County pay and how secure is that? £11.3 million was the capital cost at Shildon in 2004. Shildon welcomed a million free visitors in its first six years. Some parallels are evident. That is fine, doing something twice is no bad move. Leicester's visitor catchment should be a better one than Shildon.

The new Steam Railway has a feature "Is it time for a national register of Locomotives?". Yes, I say. There is such for British maritime heritage. 20 years ago my father was working with the World Ship Trust on the International Register of Historic Ships. About that time I tried to persuade Neil Cossons at the Science Museum of the need for a register and grading system in railway preservation. I was rebuffed. Yet since then the concept has gained in momentum. The work has been done on carriages by the Vintage Carriage Trust based at Ingrow.

(A PS to this story, a rival's view!)

A4s at Shildon this weekend past

What follows below is the content of an email just sent to George Muirhead, the museum manager at Shildon.

Dear George

I am writing something which I will post also to http://forsytheonthenrm.blogspot.co.uk/ ,  as I will any answer that I receive.

I wish to offer my congratulations on the display of the A4s at Shildon this weekend past. I have read and received several reports and they all say a great show was put on by the museum and its staff and helpers. A very special moment I understand was when the The Great Marquess on a Weardale railtour puffed by.

I am very mindful that when I got a few words with Steve Davies at the media call for the arrival of the A4s 10 days ago, he assured me that the presence of the A4s would be used to maximise revenue generation for the NRM.

As you will know in recent months the ability of the museum to manage events in a positive financial way has been problematic. I thought it would be a positive story therefore, as Steve Davies' time comes to an end, if the Museum was asked to publish the financial breakdown of last weekend.

In the scenario I am putting, we can assume that the costs of the two Transatlantic visitors travel to Shildon is to one aside. That has been sponsored. I am aware that attendees at the evening events were paying a premium fee and I am also aware that Track Access Charges to deliver other visitors to and from Shildon at the weekend have to be vectored in. I would imagine your prime extra cost has been in staff and security costs measured against a normal weekend and that revenue income on the same basis, can be assessed.

From all this I assume it is not that difficult for the museum to know whether it has made or lost money on the weekend past. I very much hope that the museum can be persuaded to share this information for whichever way the penny drops, the public who own the museum have a legitimate interest in knowing.