Part of the former Hornby factory in Margate has been transformed into a railway museum featuring many iconic steam, diesel and electric locos on display. David Staines was afforded a rare look round
By the mid-1960s, as the 1955 modernisation plan started to take effect, thousands of steam locomotives were heading to the grave. Enthusiastic heritage groups and a few individuals were successfully saving many vehicles and a few miles of branch lines to run them on.
The ‘big four’ companies had also preserved some examples which had then been inherited by the British Transport Commission. As far back as 1951 the BTC had appointed a formal Curator of Historical Relics but there was no successful plan for a national state-run museum to preserve the growing number of artefacts that had been claimed for the nation.
The best on offer was the inadequate Museum for British Transport, which had a mixed display of rail, bus and tram exhibits located in a former bus garage in Clapham, South London. Its meagre display of locomotives opened in 1963 but within a few years it was running at an annual loss – some £830,000 in today’s prices.
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The search for a new site with a fresh impetus finished with the conversion of York North MPD into a state-of-the-art venue which opened in 1975. Official documentation concedes that the move north was not without controversy after formal plans to locate the national collection at Crystal Palace station (Railways Illustrated Magazine Feb 2015) were discarded.
However, many saw it as an important step in spreading national museums outside of London. The establishment of Locomotion as the museum’s outstation at Shildon in 2004 cemented the geographical core of the collection, which was now encompassing many exhibits from the diesel and electric era.
Whilst several venues including the Great Western Society at Didcot and Transport for London at Covent Garden and Acton have amassed impressive bespoke collections, there has been no big nationally inspired museum collection on display south of York for over half a century. However, more by geographical chance rather than planning, this is about to change. Waiting in the wings is the 1:1 collection on the south coast at Margate.
The name Jeremy Hosking will be familiar to most followers of the modern railway scene. In spring 2017, the businessman and prolific railway collector bought the former Hornby model factory site primarily for locomotive and rolling stock storage. Given its location and history, the prospect of ultimately opening a museum became apparent.
Hornby Hobbies had ceased all model manufacturing at Margate, although it later returned to a small part of the original site to develop its own visitor centre and retail outlet.
Whilst the name of the 1:1 collection is a play on model scales and the location, for historical reasons, is invariably associated with the model manufacturers, the collection itself is nothing to do with Hornby. Another misconception is that the main exhibits in the new museum are located where the models were actually made.
It is the adjacent 12,000m2 former storage warehouse building that is being retrofitted as the principal new museum gallery. By notable contrast, the NRM’s Great Hall display area comes in at around 8,300m2. Mezzanine and sub-ground floor exhibition areas have also been created together with extensive outdoor work to facilitate ease of access.
Some of the warehouse’s old fixtures have been repurposed for model and exhibition stands. The former factory floor currently stands empty bar a few remaining Airfix injection moulds still sitting on a couple of pallets. Some items of rolling stock in the new museum will never make it back onto the main line, but many are just ‘resting’ between working stints. Those in the latter category will provide a fluid and changing diet of exhibits, creating a variety of attractions over the years.
Whilst there is an impressive collection of exhibits from the age of steam, including LMS 46100 Royal Scot and GWR 6960 Raveningham Hall, modern traction features prominently. On the diesel and electric side there is a Class 55 Deltic, D9016 Gordon Highlander, a Eurostar Class 373 power car and plenty in between, plus some really unexpected quirks which have been restored to museum standard in a venue to rival any nationally-funded institution.
Amid accusations in some quarters that the NRM has dumbed down and ‘lost its way’, perhaps the antidote will soon be found ‘down south’. For a taster, full access to the collection will be available during an ‘open weekend’ on August 15/16. Tickets are bookable in advance. You won’t be disappointed!
