Wonderlab: National Railway Museum opens new gallery

Wonderlab: The Bramall Gallery has been five years in the making and its 18 exhibits, aimed at families with children, and school groups, seek to inspire and fire curiosity into visitors by revolving around the themes of railways and engineering.

The gallery is located inside the 1,500m squared former workshop on the Leeman Road site and the interactives sit among the crane, wheel drop and huge engineering desk once used in the maintenance and repair of locomotives.

Judith McNicol, director of the National Railway Museum (NRM), said: “The gallery was developed in partnership with the rail industry and other experts.

“We have listened to visitor feedback about the need for more interactive, hands-on experiences.

“We want to ensure that children have great fun while developing a spark of interest in engineering that will contribute towards tackling the UK’s shortage in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) skills.”

The exhibits focus on different elements of railways and engineering and encourage people to think like engineers and develop skills as they design, build and test to produce different outcomes.

Among highlights are ‘Feel the Force’ where visitors can enter a giant wind tunnel to learn about streamlining and ‘The Great Machine’ which encourages people to solve problems and create their own transport network to move balls through a sequence of connecting tubes.

Wonderlab : The Bramhall Gallery blends modern interactive exhibits into the fabric of the former locomotive workshop (Image: Kevin Glenton)

The process of testing and prototyping to create the exhibits has involved more than 1,300 people with input from experts in the rail industry, education, local community groups and members of the public.

Bethany-Rose Cadell, community partnerships and event producer at NRM, said: “The two local groups most directly involved were The Snappy Trust and The Island."

She said exhibit fabricators met The Island for a two-day workshop and at site visits – the workshop helped create a prototype for one of the interactive boards.

Insights from children and young people involved with The Snappy Trust also led to a permanent exhibit, as well helping to inspire a Wonderlab artwork from Pippa Hale called ‘Play Revolution’, which allows visitors to build and design colourful structures. The piece was also inspired by museum archives and collections.

Artist Pippa Hale in front of her work 'Play Revolution' in Wonderlab at York's National Railway Museum (Image: Kevin Glenton)

Alongside the interactives, visitors will also be able to see live science shows and demonstrations inside the Weston Showspace and at a demonstration bar.

The gallery’s major funding partner is the Liz and Terry Bramall Foundation who have supported with a gift of £2.5m towards its creation in March 2022.

Wonderlab is the first of the museum’s Vision 2025 masterplan projects to be completed. To book tickets for Wonderlab: The Bramall Gallery, visit: www.railwaymuseum.org.uk/2025/wonderlab-the-bramall-gallery