The Great York Train Spotting Hunt for Kids
York is the best train day out in Britain for the simple reason that the National Railway Museum is a five-minute walk from the platforms and costs nothing to get into. You step off the train, walk round the corner, and you're standing next to Mallard.
This sheet is built for that walk. Eighteen things to spot, scored out of 190. Four are on the platforms at York station itself, including the great curved roof that arches over the whole place. The other fourteen are inside the museum: the famous engines, the Great Hall turntable, a signal box, an engine cut in half so you can see every part inside.
It's aimed at 6 to 10 year olds, the age where a child will happily walk past a world-famous locomotive unless someone gives them a reason to stop and look at it. The clue lines do that job. Mallard is not "the A4 Pacific holding the world speed record for steam", it's "blue, the fastest steam engine ever".
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Ages
6 to 10
Things to find
18
Points to win
190
Pages to print
1
What's on the sheet
18 things to find, grouped so you can work through them in the order you'll actually come across them.
At York station
Four finds on the platforms before you head for the museum. Worth doing while you're waiting, because York is a junction and the trains change constantly.
- An LNER train, red and white and very fast (10 points)
- A TransPennine Express, blue, purple and white (10 points)
- A CrossCountry train, dark maroon red (10 points)
- The great curved roof, where the station roof bends in a curve (10 points)
Stars of the museum
Six famous engines, and the highest-scoring finds on the sheet. Mallard, the Japanese Bullet Train, the Rocket replica, a royal carriage, and a giant Chinese locomotive that travelled here from the other side of the world.
- Mallard, blue, the fastest steam engine ever (15 points)
- A Japanese Bullet Train, white with a long pointy nose (15 points)
- The Rocket replica, a very early yellow steam engine (15 points)
- A Chinese steam engine, a giant that came all the way from China (15 points)
Around the museum
Eight finds across the halls, and the ones children usually end up liking most. A turntable big enough to spin a locomotive, a signal box full of levers, and a model railway.
- The Great Hall turntable, a giant spinning circle for engines (10 points)
- A cut-in-half engine, so you can see all the parts inside (15 points)
- An engine you can climb in, and sit where the driver sits (10 points)
- A model railway, tiny trains going round a track (10 points)
Tips for the grown-ups
The museum is free
The National Railway Museum charges nothing for entry, though it asks you to book a free timed ticket in the school holidays and it does get busy. Book it the night before and you'll walk straight in.
It's a five-minute walk from the platforms
Out of the station, turn right, follow the signs down Leeman Road. You can do the station finds, the whole museum and be back on a train without ever needing a bus or a car park.
Do the Great Hall first
Mallard, the Bullet Train and the turntable are all in there, which is 45 of the 190 points in one room. Get those while everyone still has energy, then wander the rest.
Common questions
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