On 25 Nov, 12:30, "John Salmon" wrote:
[Crossposted to uk.railway]
"Mizter T" wrote
Entry is £8, "Seniors" (presumably 65s and over) are £6.50, students
are £5.00, and following in the recent trend under-16s are free

Or should "Seniors" be 60s and over, in line with the Senior
Railcard? Since achieving that age, I have discussed this point at a
number of transport-related (e.g. preserved railway) locations. Some
sensibly say that they leave it to the individual visitor's
discretion. The most inventive solution was at the Listowel
Monorailway, where they charged me an amount midway between the full
and reduced rates!

To change the subject a little, some impressions about the content.
Starts off very well, and then finally ends up going downhill.....in a
big way.

Top floor is excellent. Large scale exhibits comprise a Sedan Chair,
the reproduction Shillibere Bus (which you can sit in!), a Thomas
Tilling Horse Bus, and a restored Horse tram. All in a diorama format
with horses and period people.

The Mezzanine Level is equally good, with a fine model dioramas on the
construction of the underground, the Beyer Peacock locomotive (you can
climb on part of the footplate), the Ashbury's carriage (you can sit
in one of the compartments), 'John Hampden' (the Metropolitan electric
locomotive), and a pre-war electric set, together with some
interesting displays on 'Metroland'.

The rest of the displays on the tube system are good, with a 'tupenny
tube' electric loco, and a padded cell, carriage (that you can sit
in). Much is made of the life and times of Frank Pick, and there is
another example of tube stock to explore.

Then.....disaster strikes. There has been an immense cull of the
previous buses and trams. One electric tram, not representative of
either LCC or LPTB. One trolleybus. An 'Old Bill' type General bus,
and a taxicab. On the other side of the hall, a Greenline coach, a
Routemaster, and a front entrance bus. So where are the rest?
Apparently, at their large exhibits store. which is sometimes open to
the public.

So, given top and mezzanine levels, what has happened to the rest of
the space? Well, there's a cafe/picnic area (in addition to the cafe
in the new wing), a chidren's play area, but most of the space is
given over to a lot of rather fatuous displays about the future of
transport in London, most of which take up far too much space.

Why? The average public, including the children, would much prefer to
see more vehicles. A triumph of the designer over the curator,
methinks....

Dr. Barry Worthington