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The National Railway Museum in York displays a collection of over 100 locomotives and nearly 300 other items of rolling stock, virtually all of which either ran on the railways of Great Britain or were built here.

The museum first opened in 1975, housed in the huge former steam locomotive depot at Leeman Road next to the East Coast Main Line, near York railway station and only 700m from York Minster. In 1990, the Station Hall opened in York’s former railway goods depot across Leeman Road, nearly doubling the size of the museum in the process. The former diesel depot adjacent to the Great Hall was added as a store and in 1999 this was rebuilt to become “The Works”, providing public access to the Museum’s collections stores and workshops and a viewing gallery overlooking York Station. Today, the NRM is one of Britain’s busiest museums and is possibly the most popular railway museum in the world, attracting 931,000 visitors in 2013 Link .

Starting in 2005, York has an annual festival of illumination with a number of attractions across York using light to present them in new ways. Attractions have included York Minster, The National Railway Museum (NRM), The Shambles, King's Square, Museum Gardens, York St. John University and finishing in recent years with the Kaboom Fireworks at Castle Howard.

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Number 4468 Mallard is a London and North Eastern Railway Class A4 Pacific steam locomotive built at Doncaster in 1938. It is historically significant because it is the holder of the world speed record for steam locomotives at 125.88 mph. The record was achieved on 3 July 1938 on the slight downward grade of Stoke Bank, south of Grantham on the East Coast Main Line, and the highest speed was recorded at milepost 90¼, between Little Bytham and Essendine.

The A4 class was designed by Sir Nigel Gresley to power high-speed streamlined trains. The aerodynamically designed body and high power allowed the class to reach speeds of over 100 miles per hour (160 km/h), although in everyday service it was relatively uncommon for any steam hauled service in the UK to reach even 90 mph.

Mallard covered almost one and a half million miles (2.4 million km) before it was retired in 1963. It was restored to working order in the 1980s, but has not operated since, apart from hauling some specials between York and Scarborough in July 1986 and a couple of runs between York and Harrogate/Leeds around Easter 1987. Mallard is now part of the National Collection at the United Kingdom's National Railway Museum in York

The locomotive is 70 ft (21 m) long and weighs 165 tons, including the tender. It is painted LNER garter blue with red wheels and steel rims.

(Link Wikipedia)