Nearly 120,000 people visited the free nine-day Great Goodbye exhibition at Locomotion: The National Railway Museum at Shildon. The final reunion of the six surviving A4 locomotives, Mallard, Union of South Africa, Dominion of Canada, Bittern, Sir Nigel Gresley and Dwight D Eisenhower, was only predicted to attract 70,000 visitors. Over 17,000 attended on Saturday 22nd February alone; the busiest day in the museum’s history.
World record holder Mallard headed back to York on Monday 24th February, hauled by fellow A4, Union of South Africa, while Sir Nigel Gresley left for the North Yorkshire Moors Railway on Tuesday 25th and Bittern left on Wednesday 26th for Crewe.
The remaining A4s, Dwight D Eisenhower and Dominion of Canada, will be staying in Shildon until after the Easter holidays, with several Easter activities planned around the engines.
Marketing Communications Officer at the museum Sarah Towers commented, “We would like to thank all the local residents and businesses for their patience during the event, which was extremely successful. “We would also like to encourage residents to come back and see us. We hold over 40 free events every year including steam events, car rallies, model railway exhibitions and family events.”
For more information on future events at Locomotion, contact the museum on 01388 777999 or visit www.nrm.org.uk/locomotion.
Shildon & District's local community newspaper.
