York's National Railway Museum

The National Railway Museum, along Leeman Road behind the train station, is the world's biggest railway museum, with 103 locomotives dating from the early years of rail travel to the present day, and 176 carriages and other rolling stock. It is particularly fitting that the museum should be in York, a major railway center since the entrepreneur George Hudson brought the railways to the city in 1839.

The first train steamed into York in 1839 to a wooden platform in Queen Street, but George Hudson, recognizing the potential of the railways, built a grander station, the fore runner of the present station. From here, he built up a railway empire that covered a quarter of the railway network and contributed greatly to York's commercial success in the 19th century. Hudson was Lord Mayor of York three times and a Member of Parliament before shady financial dealings came to light and he was disgraced.

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