Summer Open Days

As part of the Museum's programme of special events this summer, we were delighted to throw open our doors and conduct members of the public on tours of the Study Centre. This included the 'behind the scenes' areas which are not normally publicly accessible. We would like to host these types of events more often, but the inherent security and conservation considerations mean that they are very volunteer-intensive. Regrettably, no more are planned for 2008, but we hope to hold similar events next year.

Around the same period, it gave us great pleasure to host a visit by members of the Historical Model Railway Society. This Society have their own excellent Study Centre within the Butterley complex near Ripley, so the opportunity for us to show off our set up was an honour. Our reward was to witness on several occasions in a short space of time, a number of knowledgeable people exclaim in amazement when finding "new" treasures within our collection.

The Stephen Summerson Collection

In April we took delivery of 15 boxes of material donated by the widow of the Late Stephen Summerson. Stephen is a past President of the Midland Railway Society and it was his wish that following his death, his collection of research material amassed over a lifetime should be publicly available. The Study Centre is honoured to fulfil that wish.

Though the papers and photographs are yet to be fully catalogued, an outline of the collection has been drawn up and is available here on the web site. Work is ongoing to re-box the 15,000 locomotive photographs and protect them in plastic sleeves.

Stephen's expertise was on Midland Railway locomotives, though he also had a keen interest on the railway in general, and around his home town of Luton in particular.

As well as being a noted author himself, Stephen was a keen collector of books, and his collection of published material on the Midland Railway has also been donated to the Midland Railway Society. This has nearly doubled the Society's library, which is on free access in the Study Centre reading room.

Building Work

Work is ongoing in the Museum to improve the building's fire protection. This work may have a temporary knock-on effect on access to the Study Centre.

Signalling Equipment

The Museum is continuing to make progress on centralising its extensive collection of Midland Railway material which has, for many years, been stored across several locations and has been very poorly accessible as a result. The Study Centre will provide a focus for this collection and work is ongoing to install as much of it in our store room as will physically fit. Wooden shelves are being constructed to sit on top of the existing steel storage cabinets. These will house many of the signalling instruments that were acquired by the Museum in the late 1960's as British Rail was stripping out many of the signal boxes made redundant by the introduction of power signalling.

War Memorial on display in the Reading Room

We've had a bit of a change around of items on the wall in the Reading Room. Dominating the back wall behind the Invigilator's Desk was once a large photograph of the Midland Railway Institute's committee, posing on the lawn outside Derby's Midland Hotel. This fine photograph - the descendants of several of the men featured have been to see it - has been found a new home in the main store room.

This change has been necessitated by employing this prime position for a war memorial which has spent far too long out of the public eye in a store room. Recognising the men of the Locomotive Works' General Stores who went off to war - and most especially those who never came back.

We hope this serves to fulfil the promise to make a "perpetual memorial" to those who served and died for their country and freedom.

 

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Donations

The Midland Railway Society is delighted to acknowledge the donation of new items for its collection which will be made available through the Midland Railway Study Centre.

10072 - Signal box name board “Goods Yard Box” from Derby St. Mary's Goods Yard. The object has been heavily restored after being rescued from a bonfire. Its history and details of the restoration are attached.

10073 - A pamphlet issued by the Midland Railway to J.W.Keeling, outlining the Train Control Instructions. This has been donated by Garth Ponsonby.

10074 - Gradient profile for Erewash Valley line from Trent to Westhouses dated 1923, with relaying dates and type of rail annotated – Donated by Peter Churchman

10075 - Rolled tracing of Two Chain plan of Carlton Main Jn and Cudworth, with property boundaries highlighted - Donated by Peter Churchman

10077 - Photographic portrait of Samuel Waite Johnson 62cm x 75cm in wooden frame - Donated by Glynn Waite

10085 - Plan of Toton Sidings dated 24MAR1949, showing the main line from MP 121 to 122.75 with Stapleford and Sandiacre station. New signal box and site of old box at Stapleford & Sandiacre shown. Last amendment detailed as "Control Tower etc. repositioned to C.E.'s requirements" - Donated by Tony Overton

During recent cataloguing several 'gems' are coming to light.
This drawing of a Johnson Single is a particularly good example. Click the image for a 824kb version (Copyright image).	Another interesting drawing to surface is this 1919 outline of a Burton and Ashby Light Railway tramcar. (152kb. Copyright image)