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.

Forsythe Collection features in first National Railway Museum App development

Tim Procter from the National Railway Museum has been updating me about their recent use of the Forsythe Collection. "Hiroki Shin has pretty much finished his research, it's lodged with the Institute of Railway Studies at the moment but we will get copies.  It has led to an app project which we're working on with East Coast, and the collection has been extensively used by the researchers on the Station Stories project
- http://www.nrm.org.uk/NRM/GetInvolved/yourstationstory.aspx .  And as Fiona noted at her last visit items were used in the exhibition celebrating some of the star vehicles from Railfest, and items are also in the current exhibition around Modern Railways Magazine's 50th Anniversary awards.  I'll let you know what comes out of the final parts of the project". As the museum's Facebook stream put it today "We've launched our first mobile app! Download it now for free on iphone: http://ow.ly/evHAO" . Now all I need is an Iphone, we have an HTC android......

Whither NRM?

Robert Forsythe says…”Whither National Railway Museum?”

Or

An Outsider’s view 

On 19^th September 2012, the National Railway Museum announced that its Director Steve Davies was resigning and that Paul Kirkman from the DCMS would become an interim director for a year. This followed a summer of torrid headlines embracing “Nepotism at National Museum” (the Daily Telegraph 22^nd August 2012), a loss of £200,000 on one event and a series of missed deadlines and failed financial forecasts in the restoration of the 4472 Flying Scotsman engine. That very day two Gresley A4s class engines stood on the quayside at Halifax Nova Scotia awaiting shipment back to the country of their birth at the instigation of Mr Davies’ management.

Who is Robert Forsythe to say?

Robert Forsythe was born in Norwich in 1959. He grew up with the ruins of the Midland and Great Northern Joint all around. He also grew up as the son of a father who was totally dedicated to maritime preservation. One of Robert’s earliest memories is of a hurried visit to Cantley Sugar Beet Factory to see the sailing wherry Albion sunk laden with sugar beet. He soon became interested in railways as well and came to Durham as a student. He did voluntary work at Beamish, obtained an Ironbridge Institute Diploma in Industrial Archaeology. In his first museum job he worked for Andrew Scott.  He was curator of the Scottish Maritime Museum in Irvine at the age of 26. There he met Fiona McMurray whose railway pedigree through both parents was impeccable. They married and since 1991 he has worked freelance in the Tyne Valley. He has been a member and a director of various heritage organisations. Once married, they created The Forsythe Collection of Transport and Tourist Ephemera. In 2009 the NRM purchased the collection, all 100 shelved metres . Negotiations with the Museum to purchase the Collection occupied a number of years.  It gave them both an insight into the NRM process at work. In the material collected was publicity material for 4472 Flying Scotsman; from 2004 Robert has followed that project with interest.

A National Railway Museum is not a preserved railway. It shares with them the uphill task of preventing extinction. However, its remit has to be far broader. It is a subject museum and thereby its task is the preservation and presentation of a much wider canvas than any preserved railway. It is set up to tackle areas of interest which do not concern a preserved railway, telling the story of technological innovation and development, accounting for the role of the railway worker, memorialising railway culture all these tasks go beyond simply operating steam engines.

Museum Governance 

The National Railway Museum has grown like Topsy. Its roots stretch back before World War 1. Growing out of the 1925 Stockton & Darlington centenary the LNER created the York Railway Museum. In 1975 through an amalgamation with the British Transport Collection at Clapham the present National Railway Museum as a branch of the London based Science Museum (now NMSI) came into being. Amalgamating collections is one recipe for subsequent difficulties. By no means all the tasks demanded of that amalgamation have been undertaken in 2012. York is 188 miles from London. The new Railway Museum was not given, and has never had its own set of trustees. The seeds of the drift in governance were there. Is it the lack of close interaction of a group of local trustees that enabled Mr Davies to very rapidly develop the programme to repatriate the A4s? Is it the same lack that has enabled the 4472 Flying Scotsman restoration to drift over a long period of time into the quagmire that it has become? 

Museum Strategy

For many years it has been said (rightly) that it was the Museum’s task to tell the story of the railway. Whilst the cathedral like nature of the York displays is a compelling attraction, in itself that has not made it easy to undertake this task. This is why the NRM+ project was developed. The failure of its bid for money in 2011 was a serious blow and one which Mr Davies (in post then a year) has had to react to. It would be instructive for the Museum and for the wider enthusiast community to know why that bid failed. The task remains as pressing as it has been at any time. If it is accepted that the Museum is in difficulties, a useful document would be a review of all funding bids made in the last decade and their success or failure. 

An indication of the weakness of the Museum is the difficulty it has had in managing budgets. This has been well publicised through the 2012 RailFest and 4472 stories this year. Is part of that weakness down to staff turnover? A Museum thrives on the intense knowledge of its staff. If staff turnover rapidly in senior positions then detailed records are essential. At the NRM , another part of the self examination which should take place is an analysis of staff turnover in managerial positions. This would be hampered by the lack of a published Museum staff structure. That lack has led Robert to brand the Museum ‘A Byzantine Organisation’. 

Unless York is in your blood, it is not easy to establish who does what or who to contact. Other national museums like the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich publish their staff structure (http://www.rmg.co.uk/upload/pdf/NMM_organisation_chart_Feb_2012.pdf). This element of staff invisibility connects to a trait of poor communication. In our own experience and in that of others we know letters and emails can be unanswered in number. In our case this led to cross words directly with Mr Davies. A national institution could easily purchase e-mail handling software which would audit that process and ensure that every enquiry started with an acknowledgement. During July 2011 the Newcastle Journal published a story founded on this lack of response. Nothing to do with us personally.  

Museum Process

Another evidence of failure in process comes in studying the Museum’s on-line object catalogue. Go on-line, open up the Museum object catalogue and see the variety of terms used to describe the same class of item. Effective cataloguing demands commitment to a thesaurus. The creation of such a standard requires skilled input and senior management commitment over time. Unless a developed catalogue is in place, a museum of this size becomes unintelligible. It does not know what it has, items can be lost or even stolen. This has been a problem at York over many decades (cf The Weardale Coach and associated artefacts). 

There has been a lot of technical museological discussion thus far. Where all the chat about which engines to restore next: Gazelle or Shannon? How many diesels should there be? Those are fascinating discussions but they are not at the core of what a museum does. Actually there is an argument that the museum should preserve less and manage more. Manage more? Part of the Museum’s task must be as the final arbiter and back stop in the process of what survives that is important to Britain’s railway heritage. There can be no denying that the core icons of that heritage justify being in the National Collection, Locomotion, Rocket, City of Truro, Mallard, a Deltic, these cannot be dispensed with. A Deltic? Seven Deltics  survive, two in the National Collection. 6/35ths of the Gresley A4 class exist, one in the National Collection. In the middle of a period of austerity, with the Museum’s ability to work to budget under question, with a list of potential restorations longer than the preverbial arm, is it any wonder London eyebrows rise at the thought of shipping two more A4s back to Britain? Ten Terriers survive. Why does the NRM need one in its collection? A wonderful design certainly, but all the National Collection need do is to exercise over sight to guarantee that the ten does not become zero. Nineteen Bulleid  Light Pacifics survive, so why does the NRM have to have one? Is it just the power of the name Winston Churchill, is that justification alone; does that extend to “KOYLI”?

Doubtless this line of thinking will not be popular. But to adopt it does not imperil the existence of any unique artefact . It still enables the Museum through a pattern of relationships to mount spectacular displays. This year’s RailFest was certainly that. Adopting a strategy of reduction would focus the Museum team back on what is it that they are uniquely and specially qualified to do. Tell the tale of rail in Britain, curate world class collections many of which are not prime movers. 

Outcomes

Without a doubt the Museum is going to experience a period of soul searching. Instead of an enthusiast a DCMS plant will run the Museum for at least a year for sure. On paper his credentials are impressive to link the Museum back into the probity which ‘London’ has to stand for. If he can show empathy for the subject and its community, he stands a chance of success. He is going to confront some deeply entrenched patterns of behaviour at the Museum. This decision, although announced suddenly, cannot have come from the blue. Sometime must have elapsed in which DCMS took the decision that the way to deal with the headlines confronting them was to install their own man. The Science Museum was not offered a resignation to which the response was ‘Thanks and now we commence the normal recruitment process’. Something far more dramatic has happened. 

Going forward although 2012 will undeniably be remembered as a traumatic year for the NRM, it is very unlikely that it is fatal! These fracas are actually part and parcel of preservation, amidst its inherent contradictions.  Open up old Museum minutes and the passions of the York and Darlington factions can astonish from over a century ago. That, thankfully, has been neatly resolved in the NRM being now at both York and Shildon. 

Various targets for reflection have been suggested, the review of funding bids, the staff structure. The Museum is already promising a detailed engineering review of 4472’s restoration. Let us hope that is readily available and that maybe the opportunity is taken to research and tell the restoration story of other key artefacts. This would demonstrate the difficult nature of the decisions which the Museum has to take at the best of times and enable weakness in process to be identified and confronted. 

A similar research exercise could produce a full history of the Museum. It would be a riveting read. Museums exist to record objects and their creators as they are. That history’s power would be certain as long as all those involved in the Museum over the last 50 years or so were free to speak!

(Picture from York in February 2007 4472 in bits).

At sea with the Atlantic Conveyor

The two Gresley A4s are loaded aboard Atlantic Conveyor and are now at sea due Liverpool 2nd October. They sailed roughly 5am our time.

Bound in the first instance for free display Shildon (via Liverpool) see http://www.heritagerailway.co.uk/news/a4s-now-crossing-the-atlantic .

At Locomotion Shildon's Autumn Gala Today

Steve Davies on the NRM Locomotion PA at Shildon's gala this AM: the two Gresley A4s leave Halifax on the 25th September, that's this Tuesday, for the UK. He was being very affable, scheduled to drive SLS Orion and cleaning the gents for the benefit of myself and others. The gala was very busy, six engines in steam, traders I spoke to happy. Outside stars included the two Y7s together (again) and in steam. Beamish's restored Lewin. North Staffs 0-6-02T. Everything looked good.

A4 locos arrived in the UK from Canada on 3rd October see http://www.heritagerailway.co.uk/gallery/a4s-have-arrived .

 

New National Railway Museum head Paul Kirkman biography

New NRM head biography: Paul Kirkman studied Philosophy at Edinburgh University before joining HMG. In between three spells at the Treasury he was Private Secretary to the Director General of the Confederation of British Industry, studied for an MA in Art History at Goldsmiths College and was Head of Policy & Planning at the Natural History Museum. Paul joined the Department for Culture Media and Sport in September 2005 as Head of Museums & Libraries. He was a Clore Fellow in 2009 and led the DCMS’s work on the 2010 Spending Review. He is now Head of Arts and Creative Industries at DCMS.

Paul’s secondment will be for a period of one year. DCMS staff regularly undertake relevant secondments as the department believes secondments play an important role in enabling individuals and the host organization to benefit from new skills, knowledge and capabilities. (from NRM press release).

Steve Davies leaves the National Railway Museum

National Railway Museum head Steve Davies is to leave it has been announced today, with just  two and a half years in post.  A series of well flagged issues surrounding the 2012 Railfest and the restoration of Flying Scotsman are associated. A lot more needs to be said but that will be on reflection and when some substantive information from the museum is available. Meanwhile as of today two A4s are on the quayside at Halifax Canada and one must ask what will happen to them?

Press release here #1692 .

By the end of the day Museums Journal had a feature ready with some useful insight. Heritage Railway report. For an insight into what this is all about Steam Railway 405 and 406 should be obtained. There the interview David Willcock and Steve Davies may turn out to have been significant. Other stories in issue 406 would have made unpleasant reading in London.