NRM

Let the British taxpayer in on production of proof of residence, we pay for the museums anyway through tax. Then charge the foreign tourist. This would work especially well for the London museums - I go to the British Museum regularly at lunchtime as I work nearby, and the majority of visitors then seem to be foreign tourists.

 

I'd go the opposite.. Let everyone pay and you can claim it back in your tax return... Watch visitor numbers rise then ! There's no direct discrimination then.

 

If you charged the rate necessary to sustain the NRM or other natinoal museums, you would immediately come under the law of diminishing returns. Attendance would drop tremendously and the necessary high cost of entry would add to that drop. I'm sure that the museums would tell you that they are far better off being centrally funded.

 

Have you tried obtaining vac pipes in the UK? To my knowledge there is only one supplier and they are essentailly hand made. And not cheap!

 

They don't have to be new, nor even working.. Is there any EWS old stock going for scrap with some pipes on ?
a few hundred quid for 4 new ones, is still less than a round trip plane ticket to Japan, but the value of a token gesture in Japan is worth much more.

 

Two problems there: First, there would be huge queues. Second, you've basically just forced British citizens to carry ID cards in exchange for free admission to the V&A.

 

Even an ID card wouldn't prove you were a taxpayer. I wouldn't be opposed to admission charges. One way of giving some advantage to local people is done by a number of attractions I've visited (including Museum of London and Chatham Historic Dockyard) which charge for admission but your ticket is valid for return visits for up to a year.

 

For the sake of a museum piece, send four in reasonable visual condition but have suffered slight leaks. I expect even the smaller heritage railways generate a few of these per year - the gesture's then virtually free.

 

I wonder how many people who critise this trip to Japan have been on an overseas trip for work before.

If you haven't, then you may be suprised to find out that they are utterly dire. Normally a packed schedule, while still having to pick up all the otehr stuff you had to do at home via email/remote working, means 12-14 hr days. Stuck in a hotel room on your own on the othe side of the world. The only people who consider them to be 'jollies' are those who haven't had to do them.

 

i second that !!!

 

Was at the Nrm today, really enjoyable day. Looks to have been a sizeable reshuffle since my last visit. The great hall seems well packed and saw 3 a4s under the same roof! Station hall has been improved, it's a shame the locos have to be boxed in so you are unable to see below the platform level (I assume to stop little darlings falling between platform and stock....) notable absence of black 5 no.5000 too?

Look forward to heading over for the a4 gathering, Dwight D Eisenhower and Mallard both look great- credit to both heritage painting and the NRM.

Chris

 

I've been to York twice this year and twice I've missed out seeing Boxhill. The first time I didn't know where it was then when I went last Saturday the building it was in was closed. Another slight disappointment was that from the Balcony in The Works it was difficult to get any decent pictures of 60008 but I can wait until later in 2013 to try better for both of them.

I was happy to see 45305 on the turntable last week as I didn't know it was at York and meant I saw 3 locos I hadn't seen before (along with 60008 and 60009).

But had a great day and looking to visit once or twice in 2013 for Mallard 75 as well as try to get to Shildon which I haven't been to yet.

 

The black 5 no5000 is at locomotion shildon, along with 6229 "Duchess of Hamilton" and 60010 "Dominion of Canada" so well worth the visit also 19th/20th jan is a "cab-it" event with access to 6229 among others.

 

Me too.........glad those day's are over...........