Osgood
Western Thunderer
London Transport Museum, Covent Garden
In all the years of 'whiling away a few hours' in London, I'd never given the long-established London Transport Museum a second thought.
But finding ourselves with a 1/2 day to spare and the temptation of a new exhibition called 'Poster Girls' (no, not posters of girls - it celebrates over 100 years of female artists and their prolific work for an enlightened and encouraging London Transport), we paid a visit.
In short, the museum has been given the modern treatment - which inevitably means gearing it up for the children / family experience. And also widening the scope to tell the complete history of transport around the Capital. But in my view it has been done in a very skilful way so as not to detract from telling the story of London's transport whilst displaying their wonderful collection of exhibits in appropriate settings, with no 'dumbing down' in evidence.
One benefit is the ability to be more 'hands on' with the exhibits - for example you can even sit in the compartment of a 1880s Met. Rly coach.
One exhibit that caught my eye was a delightful diorama (I think to 1/43 scale) of a cut-and-cover operation during building of the first rail tunnels around 1865. Based I guess on a photo or engraving, the captivating scene is so full of detail I had to be dragged away after 10 minutes!
So, if you can tune out the occasional flurry of children I would highly recommend this museum to any transport buff. A very good book shop too, with a good and varied selection of current / new rail subjects.
Finally - a small example of the care and detail taken in creating the current museum is the topping on a cappuccino from the cafe! Well done, LT.
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