A day in York - by William

Today I got up and watched television until Mum and Dad told me off for watching television - life's not fair! I then had breakfast (toast today), had a shower, got dressed and cleaned my teeth. We then went out to the nearest bus stop and couldn't pick if we would go on a sight-seeing bus (more expensive) or a normal bus (cheaper). In the end we decided to go on the sight-seeing bus.


We went up on the top level of the bus and there was a lady speeking with a microphone, explaining the history and everything about the town of York. She was very nice and quite a good speaker as well.

Elizabeth on the sightseeing bus.

We hopped off at the National Railway Museum stop. We walked underneath a long tunnel and then entered through the automatic doors of the Museum. It was free of charge to enter. We then looked at the gift shop which was first.

Walking straight ahead through into the next hall we saw about 10 massive, life sized, used trains. Most of them had a viewing platform to see what their interiors looked like. I can't say that they were modern but they looked luxurious. Some of the people travelling on the coaches even had a whole carriage to themselves: a bathroom, bedroom, smoking room and two living rooms, and a lavatory out the back, but still in the carriage.





I must say they would have been expensive. Take a look at the inside of this one!






After a short snack break we then looked at the Royal Coaches. Queen Victoria, King Edward and Queen Elizabeth 2, as well as Queen Adelaide, all had their own carriages. Most of them were good, but I can't say that Queen Elizabeths 2's was that great. Queen Elizabeths' is the most modern, but coming with that, it didn't have all the cushions and greatness of the others.

Here's mum enjoying a nice cup of coffee.




Did you know that Queen Victoria only had a bath 3 times in her life? I read that sometime anyway!

We then went to the Miniature Railway, and when I say miniature I really mean it. Mum bought tickets for Elizabeth, James, herself and me. They were 50 pence each. Not too bad! When we lined up to hop on it, and it was cold! We hopped onto the carriage which was about 2 foot high and a man hopped out and said ' do not put any feet, hands or heads out the window'. We were then on our way. Travelling for about a minute at walking speed the driver hopped out at one end, went to the other end, and hopped back in. The train then started again and went the other way. When we got back to the station a minute later that was the end of the trip! wow!

In stars, I would rate this ride half a star!

After that we went into a different hall - the interactive hall. We all went in and dad and I went to the signalling box. There was a piece of paper explaining what to do - for example, pull down starter leaver, release lever number 13 when the number 8 lever falls. We played around in this hall for a while by doing a number of things - testing which wheels would work best on tracks, building tracks, completing large jigsaw puzzles and testing aerodynamic trains. I enjoyed this area alot.

The final hall we went into was the Great Hall. It was the largest of all the halls, with, I would say, about 50 trains in it including the first ever train, Stephenson's Train, to the newest and most modern, the bullet train, reaching speeds of up to 350km per hour.











At the very end of the hall they had a turntable where a trian would drive onto a piece of track and the whole train would spin around to a different track to keep on going on its route. These photo's are of the Mallard (this train broke the land speed record for a steam locomotive) and the turntable.

Mum and I then lost Xavier, James, Elizabeth and Dad. We stayed put for a while and eventually they found us.

Our final destination was the gift shop once more. We found a great viking beanie which James loved, but while we were there we overheard that some people had lost a beanie, It ended up that the one we wanted to buy for James was infact the lost beanie so we had to return it to them instead. Maybe we will find one somewhere else.

Overall, I thought that the National Rail Museum was fantastic.

On our way home from the National Rail Museum we hopped back onto the bus and travelled around York, learning a little of the towns history. We learnt:

1. That is a patch of grass just outside the towns wall that the guides mother said you shouldn't walk on. This is because the area is a graveyard for people who died from cholera.


2. Under Sainsbury's they found a Jewish graveyard.


3. York is 2000 years old.

Here are some photos of some of York: York Castle and the York Minster