Photos from Open Weekend at London Transport Museum Depot - 10th - 11th March 2012

On Saturday I had a day of transport geekery at London Transport Museum Depot, Acton open weekend. I went along with fellow transport geek / nerd @Jemimah_Knight. The Depot is also open today Sunday 11 March 2012. It was packed with people looking at model train sets including this lovely one Tube set built from Lego. However the miniature model trains also include displays all modes of London travel from London Underground trains to trams.




I really liked the paper kits of London Underground stations too (starter kits of bus shelters & bus stops start at £5 - most of the stations were £14 each).




As well as being a giant amongst all of the model trains there is a fantastic collection of  over 370,000 objects at the Museum Depot, which includes road and rail vehicles, posters and artworks, engineering drawings, signs and ephemera.


storage at the london transport museum depot by jemimahknight



hell grease by jemimahknight

You can also go on a curator led tours of the small object store which is full of fascinating bits and pieces to keep young and old amused for hours.  Despite the number of anoraks and older men, there were lots of families and less sterotypical looking  fans of transport at the Depot too.

Add to that rides on the Depot’s miniature railway, which features steam and electric trains, trips on full size heritage vehicles and old routemasters and it really is a brilliant day out.


If you're looking for transport related Mother's Day ideas the following might be worth a punt!




Plus there's a series of talks over the weekend. We got to hear the puntastic Robert Hulse, Director of the Brunel Museum, giving a talk entitled "Victorian Engineering at its best" He discussed the famous Victorian Father and son engineers Marc and Isambard Brunel whose best known achievement was the Thames Tunnel, the world’s first under water tunnel.

On Sunday 11 March 2012 it's the turn of buses.  At 12.30pm and 3.00pm, Roger Torode, author of the newly published book Midland Red Style (written in partnership with Malcolm Keeley), will be talking about the Midland Red bus’ style, engineering and design along with the bus’ surprising life with London Transport. Roger will also be signing copies of his book and answering bus related questions.

As predicted the queue to get in was very long, but if you had booked tickets in advance you could have sped to the front.  However, it did seem to move reasonably quicly so  still worth going if you've just heard about this today. 


Tickets cost £10.00 for adults, £8.00 for senior citizens, £6.50 concessions and £5.00 London Transport Museum Friends. Accompanied children under 16 get in free.

My full set of photos from the Museum Depot are here and Jemimah Knight my fellow transport geek in crime has a great set of photos from the day too.

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