The museum is home to some of the most influential locomotives the railway industry has ever seen, with the original Stephenson’s Rocket, winner of the Rainhill Trials, Locomotion No.1, the first locomotive to haul a passenger service on the Stockton & Darlington Railway in 1825, record-breaking HST Power Car ‘The Journey Shrinker’, and many more on display.
Each week will feature a range of free fun, science-packed activities looking at a different area on the theme of ‘Move It!’. Paid-for steam passenger rides on the museum’s replica Stephenson’s Rocket are also scheduled to run every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday throughout the holidays.
From Saturday 22 – Sunday, July 30, head along for ‘Moving Goods’. Get creative with the LEGO activity with Bricks McGee and a bubble workshop and hovercraft balloons from Same Difference Arts. Join the Explainer team as the Locomotion Futures sessions look at bridges on Thursday, July 27.
In the second week, the focus switches to ‘Moving People’. South Durham Model Engineers will be operating miniature railway rides, and there’ll be storytelling with Elizabeth Baker and a bubble workshop with Same Difference Arts. Kinetic energy is this week’s topic being explored in the Locomotion Futures sessions.
From Monday, August 7, the theme is ‘Moving Forward’. Same Difference Arts will be running a Save the Planet Walkabout, there’ll be a chance to get hands-on in the junk modelling session with Dawn Belshaw, and the Explainer team will be looking at magnetic levitation in the latest Locomotion Futures session.
The popular Bricks McGee LEGO sessions return on Monday, August 14 for another ‘Moving Goods’ week along with Same Difference Arts and their hovercraft balloons. Winding engines will be explored in the Locomotion Futures sessions.
Visitors have another chance to ride on South Durham Model Engineers’ miniature railway in week five for ‘Moving People’, and Elizabeth Baker returns with more storytelling sessions. This week’s Locomotion Futures sessions will be focused on track-making.
For the final week, ‘Moving Forward’ returns with more junk modelling sessions with Dawn Belshaw and Save the Planet Walkabouts with Same Difference Arts. The museum’s final Locomotion Futures sessions will look at solar energy.
To find out more visit the Locomotion website.
