Land redevelopment forces closure of Electric Railway Museum in October
The Electric Railway Museum in Baginton is to close in October, because the land where the museum is based alongside Coventry Airport is due to be redeveloped.
The ERM is home to the largest collection of surviving preserved electric multiple units (EMUs) in the UK, along with a number of diesel and electric shunting locomotives. The closure of the museum could result in this unique collection of vehicles being dispersed across the country, although the museum trustees are hoping to establish a new base for their collection.
The land on which the museum is located is being sold for commercial redevelopment. The trustees of the museum have been investigating their options for a number of months, when it became apparent that they were unlikely to be able to stay at their current site.
A statement issued by the ERM read: “We have reluctantly decided that we will close the Electric Railway Museum at its present location after the open day on October 8 2017.
“We will be actively working with the railway heritage sector to ensure that vehicles and locomotives currently on the site are not endangered, with a view in the longer term to establish a new site for the ERM. We would like to thank you for your support over the past ten years and continuing support in the future as we work to relocate the collection.”
The Trustees of the ERM are now urgently seeking assistance - either physically or financially - as they begin the search for a new home, with estimates of £250,000 quoted just to move the vehicles to another site. At this stage it is not known whether a suitable new base can be found that will allow the collection to remain together, or whether the collection will be sent to various different sites.
The ERM is holding public open days on August 13 and September 9/10, before the final public open day that is expected to take place on October 7, after which the museum will be closed and dismantled.
It will be the first heritage railway centre to close since the Dinting Railway Centre in Glossop in 1990. Dinting was once a major steam locomotive museum, operated by the Bahamas Locomotive Society. Much of the BLS collection was relocated to Ingrow West on the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway, while the former preservation site at Dinting remains derelict and disused.
More information about the ERM and its collection can be found at www.electricrailwaymuseum.co.uk