York’s National Railway Museum reopens
Following an £11m renovation project as part of the York Central scheme, the grade two-listed Station Hall is welcoming the public again in the week of its 50th birthday and the 200th anniversary of the railway.
Buttress Architects has led the restoration and conservation work, which included refreshing the entire interior and exterior of the building, the installation of 632 solar roof panels across a new insulated metal-clad roof, and new glazing to the south and west elevations to allow for future train vehicle moves.
Starting in 2023, the project involved removing the 65,000 sq ft roof to allow the locomotives to be left in place and shrouded with protective scaffolding to shield them whilst the works were carried out.
Historical locomotives on site include Queen Victoria’s, King Edward’s, Queen Mary’s, and the Queen Mother’s trains.
The roof was made water-tight, the solar panels were added, and rooflights with UV film were installed, to prevent degradation of interior collections.
On other parts of the building, the sliding tracks and the gear for the original shutter doors were restored. The doors once allowed locomotives to transfer from the Hall onto the main railway line, as well as horse-drawn vans.
The new glazed screens were designed to be demountable, to allow for train moves in the future.
The redevelopment of the National Railway Museum forms part of the wider York Central regeneration plans, which will deliver 2,500 new homes – at least 20% of which will be affordable – and create up to one million sq ft of office, retail and hospitality space.
York Central is being developed by McLaren, Arlington, and Homes England.
Alex Scrimshaw, associate technologist at Buttress said: “Before any building construction works could start, the existing locomotives and vehicles were encapsulated within mobile scaffold frames, clad with solid steel sheeting to the roof and membrane wrap.
“The scaffold frames were constructed within the Hall and moved on tracks over the locomotives. This created an impact-resistant envelope that protected the collection from potential damage.
“It also allowed a full scaffold crash-deck to be installed above, giving contractors safe access to complete the re-roofing and high-level fabric repairs.
“As the project did not have an external temporary roof, the internal crash-deck was covered with scaffold sheeting to provide a secondary barrier against potential water ingress from inclement weather…
“We drew inspiration from the Burgos Railway Station in Spain for the new glazed screens. They are essentially a large Meccano set, nuts, bolts and components, allowing parts to be deconstructed and reconstructed.
“Seeing Station Hall reopen after our restoration works has been a real privilege. Protecting such an important grade two-listed building was both a challenge and a responsibility that we are proud to be part of.”
