Involving “Expert” volunteers

Between 2012 and 2013, our Associate Curator of Railways, Russell Hollowood, worked very closely with one of our Signalling School volunteers, Richard Pulleyn, on a project that would enhance our understanding of our signalling collection.  The following blog was written by Richard during the project and highlights the importance of involving groups of “expert” volunteers in your museum’s projects.

At the 2011 Signalling Records Society spring meeting there was an appeal for volunteers to help with identifying the origin and importance of signalling items in the National Railway Museum’s collection. Happily, a number of members came forward and a series of visits were arranged.

Signalling Record Society volunteers (left to right) Andy Overton, Edward Dorricott, Richard Foster, Reg Instone, Charles Weightman, Steve Sharpe, Pete Burke and Richard Pulleyn. Image courtesy of Richard Pulleyn.

 

By early 2012 most of the signals, lever frames and power signalling equipment that were accessible, recorded, and evaluated. After a careful review of this work, the museum then began deaccessioning duplicated items and those that were incomplete or considered to be of little historical value.

The majority of the remaining collection is now held in the Science Museum Group’s storage facility, at Wroughton. A small proportion has remained at the museum and can be seen in the Warehouse.

Since the move, further equipment has been identified as in need of identification and evaluation. A new group has been formed to work on this and ultimately we hope to produce a comprehensive listing of lever frames and their locations, starting with those at the museum and then expanding to include those held by other organisations.

My Favourite Object

At the National Railway Museum not only do we have a wonderful collection of objects, we also have over 360 amazing volunteers. They support our work in a variety of ways, from assisting with research to running our miniature railway. We value their input tremendously and it’s important to us that they have a strong voice within our organisation. One of the ways we do this is through our “My favourite object” posters. Each month a volunteer writes 100 words on their favourite object from our collection, these are then displayed throughout the museum. As well as providing our volunteers with the chance to share their passion with our visitors, it has also proved a fascinating and personal way of interpreting the collection.

A favourite object of one of our volunteers.

Since we started, almost two years ago, we have displayed a huge range of objects. My personal favourites include a story about the parents of one of our volunteers travelling on Golden Arrow and one man’s affection for a station bench!

Each month I’ll be sharing one of these stories with you. If you have any personal connections with the objects please let me know, as I’d love to hear them.