NRM REBRAND IS NOT IMPORTANT

In SR484, the Editor sought the views of those in favour of the rebranding of the National Railway Museum.

While the NRM’s response in SR483 seems somewhat irrelevant and contradictory (e.g. highlighting that the Media Museum has been rebranded to include the word National in a longer title), it appears that it is only the NRM logo which is changing, not the name – although it is hard to grasp this from its rambling statement.

While the change does not seem to be particularly necessary (the NRM’s statement refers to a “fine balance” between the status endowed by the word ‘National’ and the perceived implication that it is not a fun place) the Science Museum and the Natural History Museum, for example, are national institutions which thrive perfectly well without being branded with the word ‘National’.

I do not think it matters.

Not quite a view in favour, but not one against.

Tim Morton, London

A BIT SILLY

So it’s just ‘Railway Museum’ now is it? Well, the media are still calling it the National Railway Museum.

Will this mean in future there will be a horse race called just ‘The Grand’, and ‘The Trust’, for ‘National Trust’? Also no more ‘National News’? All a bit silly. Geoffrey Hall, Leeds

THE PLACE TO BE

I would like to congratulate the people at York/Kensington for their vision in dropping the superfluous word ‘national’ from the title of the Railway Museum.

‘National’ is very antiquated, and indeed, almost arrogant in its assumption. If criticism is to be levelled at those who manage ‘the collection’, then it should be for not being radical enough.

It is perfectly obvious to anyone who visits the edifice in Leeman Road that it is a railway museum – so is the word ‘railway’ really necessary? Surely just the single word ‘museum’ would have far more impact, and everyone who is anyone would know what the content of said museum was?

Actually, if you follow this through logically, the word ‘museum’ is also out of place. It conjures up images of musty, dusty old artefacts of dubious history or merit, shivering anonymously in some draughty old warehouse somewhere. A better and far more modern word would surely be ‘place’ – and if this was adopted, it would enable the Kensington administration to bring back the Ferris wheel which once stood outside the building, and allow pinball and fruit machines to be installed in the corridors.

With all the Government cuts of recent times, these are surely needed now more than ever to help bolster revenue?

Frank Shelby, Andover

CULTURAL RAPE

The depressing removal of the word ‘national’ from the Railway Museum’s logo appears to be just another example of a ‘marketing solution’ – the dumbing down of academic excellence – much as the splitting and degrading of English Heritage has been. There is a general move to infantilise and emasculate serious study in many aspects of mainstream life today – from libraries being reinvented as glorified social centres (with a few books), to tawdry ‘dressing-up’ boxes in provincial museums.

This is a politically driven ideology that equates seriousness of purpose with cultural elitism. Contiguous with this dumbing down is an obsession with turning museums into family entertainment centres.

This has become so serious a matter that it is verging on cultural rape. It appears to be based on a monumental loss of nerve as to what museums actually are – repositories of culture. They are serious places, charged with a serious purpose.

The National Railway Museum is not ‘Puff-Puff’s Adventure Park’! The trivialisation of exhibits and presentations patronises both children and the adults who fund collections through taxation. Pandering to the lowest common denominator benefits nobody. It is bogus inclusiveness.

Such misplaced ideology is a cancer spreading through our museums that should be stamped out with extreme prejudice. Reassert excellence and seriousness and stop patronising young people with mediocrity. Engage with them properly through innovative displays and quality interaction with real objects, not screens.

Accept that many people will quite possibly be bored – that is real life – nobody is interested in everything. And finally, if a new name is truly required, how about ‘The British Railway Museum’, or, at a pinch, ‘The British Railway Story’?

Guy Bettley-Cooke, Cheveley, Cambs

STATUS DEVALUED

Stupid mistakes are made from time to time, but none can compare with the monumental mistake of removing the title, and indeed status, that a national museum enjoys.

At a stroke everything is devalued. The NRM, by definition, had to be the best the nation could muster, and a splendid job it has done over the last 43 years. Whoever signed off the change clearly feels that they are not up to the job.

Let’s hope by the time a year has passed the penny will have dropped and the title will be restored.

William Tilling, Sheffield

NAME AND SHAME

Once again I find myself compelled to write to the press on the subject of our National Railway Museum.

There is no reason on Earth to change the name of the York museum from its current title.

If I talk to friends, colleagues or family about the National Railway Museum, they all know immediately that I am referring to the museum at York. If I talk about the ‘Railway Museum’, they will at best assume I mean any one of several museums within striking distance of where we are situated and, at worst, have no idea at all of what I mean.

No doubt this has come about because at any meetings of the Science Museum Group elite, it’s a little quicker and easier for the hard-working ladies and gentlemen of that body to just call it ‘Railway Museum’.

It seems that regardless of public opinion, the museum mandarins are determined to continue in their pointless process of tearing the heart out of our NRM with this change of name.

If that is to be the case there is at least one thing we can all do about it… Who cares what it says on the wall, the doors or other signage? We can all still refer to it as the National Railway Museum and nobody can prevent us from doing so. I for one have no intention of calling it anything else and if we all continue to do that, then I reckon eventually they’ll give in because they will be the only ones who know what the ‘Railway Museum’ is!

Nigel Furness, by email