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By Anthony Coulls on

Season’s Greetings from the Rail Vehicles Team

Senior Curator Anthony Coulls rounds up his busy year at the museum.

As of 1 December, I now have help in the form of an Associate Curator, Bob Gwynne, who is helping to deliver many aspects of the programme from research and enquiries to fundraising possibilities, loan checks and assistance with event planning.

It’s been a busy year, with the return to steam of the T9 loco, movement of the NER stores van to the North Yorkshire Moors Railway, movement of Mallard from York to Shildon pulled by Tornado, and the return to York of Green Arrow and Evening Star.

The loans of Maude to York and Juno to Shildon have complemented the displays at both sites, whilst the repaint of City of Truro, the class 37 and the LMS Crab have given new images to old friends.

On the main line, Oliver Cromwell took on Shap and won, whilst elsewhere, stalwarts of the collection such as the Beattie well tank and the 04 have continued to represent the NRM on heritage railways.

There have been many other highlights of 2010 – most of them chronicled in this blog – and I am sure that there are many to look forward to in 2011, not least the return to steam of Flying Scotsman. One thing is certain: I will attempt to document them here whenever time allows.

May I thus then take this opportunity to wish all readers of this blog and their families, plus friends and supporters of the NRM, a Happy Christmas and all the best for the New Year. Thank you too to all the staff, volunteers and others who have made so many special moments throughout the year, and helped us to do as much as we have done!

I’ll leave you with the last image of the year– taken on 22 December – of the Crab in its new LMS crimson lake guise as number 13000. It’s a tribute to the painting and lining skills of Phil Anderson, and the hours of preparation and repair undertaken by Richard Pearson and the workshop staff and volunteers at Shildon.

During a lull in the snow we removed 13000 from the workshop at Shildon. We took the opportunity to take its portrait after its transformation from LMS black as No. 2700 to LMS crimson lake as No. 13000 (the identity it carried when new).

One comment on “Season’s Greetings from the Rail Vehicles Team

  1. Super stuff Anthony, welcome to Bob, and a very Happy Christmas to everyone involved in the NRM, it’s a great place to visit. Also, I wish you all a prosperous New Year for the collection and the development of the NRM

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