Does closing down NRM workshop risk losing sight of technology?
A MAJOR British museum was once reputed to have thrown away a collection of ancient Greek tools because they weren’t beautiful. A sad tale, but lack of awareness of technological heritage in museums is still with us even in institutions where it should be required.
The National Railway Museum had a well-equipped workshop with a viewing gallery where historic locomotives were restored and maintained. Large equipment included a crane, wheeldrop, and specialist machine tools for heavy repairs. Some, like a 1950s Elliott vertical slotting machine, came from York’s carriage works, itself a link with the city’s own rich railway manufacturing heritage. Most recently the workshop was used by the Sir Nigel Gresley Locomotive Trust to restore A4 No. 60007.
Visitors saw activities like machining, white metalling, and wheeling. Engines handled included Flying Scotsman, Green Arrow, Duchess of Hamilton and City of Truro. The workshop was popular.
A member of the Friends of the NRM who wishes to remain anonymous helps at its Museum Information Point. He says one of the questions asked most often is “What’s happened to the workshop?”, followed by “Why can’t we go up on the gallery anymore?”Visitors enjoyed seeing authentic railway engineering.
Despite public interest, the workshop closed last year. Machinery was sold or scrapped. Instead, space will be occupied by Wonderlab: the Bramall Gallery, described as an interactive place that “will enable young people to learn about science and engineering through hands-on learning.” It will cost about £5 million.
Writing in Model Engineer, Sir Peter Hendy, chairman of the NRM Advisory Board, asserted that the workshop had latterly been used mainly by external organisations with much of the equipment sitting redundant.
He claimed the new gallery will “inspire the next generation of engineers”, adding that Wonderlab will include the crane and wheeldrop with new workshops, and an engine preparation facility provided elsewhere at the museum.
Leaving aside the point that redundant equipment makes up much museum content, it is a strange practice to close one workshop before ensuring other facilities are open. New facilities will lack former equipment, and the range of work will be severely limited. The wheeldrop and crane will be unusable in Wonderlab. Were they retained only because they were too expensive to remove?
Opportunity lost?
As for use mainly by external organisations, that is largely because the museum ran down its engineering side. Previously the museum had distinguished heads of engineering, including John Bellwood and Richard Gibbon OBE. It now lacks any engineers in the management team, ironic for a museum that concerns the development of railway engineering. How tempting to compare with unlamented Railtrack, the largest operator of engineering assets in Britain, lacking anyone with engineering expertise on the board.
Richard Swales, chief engineer for the Sir Nigel Gresley Locomotive Trust, notes in a personal view that “towards the end of the time in the workshop, it seemed that those in the lower ranks with any railway or engineering background were either pushed out or left of their own volition, having seen the direction that the place was going”.
He added that restoration work at the NRM attracted volunteers: “Looking over the balcony, they could see what was going on.”They had an opportunity, now lost, to see real railway engineering.
The trust set up a junior section, giving young people a chance to work on the engines. This had spin-off benefits; many have now obtained engineering jobs or apprenticeships. Richard wrote:
“I can understand wanting to inspire children but why wreck the workshop to do so? It was already attracting young people into engineering through seeing the real thing. The fact that many of our junior volunteers have found places in engineering industry demonstrates that the fundamental engineering principals and practical skills involved in the restoration and maintenance of steam locomotives and other heritage vehicles are clearly found relevant by leading engineering companies. If the workshop had not been dismantled, the NRM would have been the ideal place to continue and build on this activity.”
Whether Wonderlab will enthuse young people remains to be seen. Artist Pippa Hale has been commissioned to create a “headline installation” for the gallery to include a collection of interactive blocks. It bodes ill.
Richard added: “I cannot help feeling that the attraction of Wonderlab to the Science Museum Group is as much for potential to generate income as it is for its (doubtful) educational value.”
Wonderlab charges are currently reported as likely to be £11 for adults, so is potentially a money-spinner for the museum.
‘Profound knowledge’
Dr Ron Fitzgerald has experience of industrial museums, including setting up Leeds Armley Mills Industrial Museum. He notes that several major technical museums were set up by enthusiasts with a profound knowledge of their subject. Based on his experience, he doubts the value of interactive displays that Wonderlab is expected to offer. He argues that the best way to stimulate engineering interest in visitors of all ages is through full-sized objects on which good interpretative display can be built.
Museums are often concerned more with ‘visitor services’ than collections themselves. The National Maritime Museum is an example of a once-great museum reduced to a shadow of what it was. Curators are appointed for skills in ‘visitor experience’ rather than, apparently, knowledge or feeling for their subject.
Modern museum thinking appears insensitive to technology. Increasingly it seems museum curators are overwhelmingly from arts backgrounds and do not know the best way to interpret engineering technology for the public. Without a radical change of approach by the museum profession, further damage will follow.
Ron Fitzgerald argues that the best engineering collections are now run by amateurs, knowledgeable and enthusiastic about their subjects. National and local museums can learn from them – but will they?
Roger Backhouse, Upper Poppleton, York