Happy 100th birthday to a tiny railway with a big history

The Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway Signalling School – a model railway layout used to train real-life signallers *– recently celebrated its 100th birthday with a three-day have-a go event here at the museum.
On Friday, our director Paul Kirkman (below, right) led museum staff in getting to grips with the layout – and for the rest of the day, museum staff learnt*the dark art of railway signalling.


Saturday was the turn of the professionals: real-life signallers, who’d had their training on this very layout, met old comrades and shared stories of days gone by.*Despite the snow, plenty showed up.

Finally, everyone enjoyed a piece of Signal School birthday cake.

Sunday afternoon was spent helping visitors operate the layout, and centenary celebrations closed with a group photograph.

Here’s hoping the Signalling School is still around in 2113.

Filed under: Small object collections Tagged: history, lancashire and yorkshire, rail, railway, signalling, signalling school, trains