About the NRM collection

The National Railway Museum Collections have been built up over the past 80 years and are very rich. They comprise over 100 locomotives and nearly 200 other items of rolling stock, and tell the story of the railway from the early 19th century to the present day.

There are still some gaps – so you may wonder why we don’t just accept donations straight away. The reason is that we need to ensure that your donation is cared for correctly right from the start, and receives the full attention of the curatorial staff.

Our focus now is on collecting objects that reflect the impact railways have made on society, culture and technology, and to represent key human stories in railway history. The costs of caring for collections are high, so it is important that we do not collect unwanted duplicates or objects that fall outside our collecting policy.

Decisions on what material should be acquired for the Collection are made by the Museum’s Collections Development Group. Made up of curators and other specialist staff, this group meets every two months to select from the many items offered to the museum as gifts, purchases or loans, and chooses only those which are most suitable for exhibition or research.

View the National Railway Museum Loans Policy (PDF, 93Kb).

You can also go behind the scenes and see the work being done on our Collections at the National Railway Museum blog.