NEWTON made it too difficult with all those big words, Nick Boardman tells his young audience. But really, he says, it is easy.

All we need to know is that Bernard the toy elephant is heavier than his pal Nelly, so to make him go as fast, Bernard needs more of a push.

Nick is conducting a whistle-stop tour of Newton’s laws of motion, as he does every day at the

target="_blank">National Railway Museum, using balls, motors or cuddly toys to help him.

And it only takes half-an-hour.

Nick is one of 22 explainers at the NRM. He trained as a primary school teacher and it shows; in a whirlwind of hands, he has his audience spellbound, and they also come to grips with some tricky science.

“It needs to be fun,” he says. “You tell the kids they don’t need all those long complicated words, just watch the experiments. Like the one with the elephants. I show them why one needs a bit more of a shove and that’s a lot easier to understand than using Isaac Newton’s theories. For children this age, it needs to be upbeat.

“Learning and fun, that’s what we’re all about.”

Fun yes, but Nick never talks down to his audience. The three laws of motion are displayed on a TV screen, but they do not get in the way. Instead they are proven in turn as the children sit wide-eyed while a Barbie doll is fired from a water cannon. They squeal with delight as Nelly the elephant is catapulted across the room and they howl with laughter as Nick lets off a volley of squeaky balloons.

It may be enjoyable, but at the end of the show all have learned Newton’s laws. It’s just that they don’t realise it yet.

“In the past museums were all about, ‘Don’t touch this’ or ‘Don’t touch that’, but we’re trying to get them engaged with science in an enjoyable way. And when they go into the Great Hall, they will be subconsciously thinking about the forces of nature.”

Of course the NRM’s real wow factor is the jaw-dropping sight of all those steam trains. Just ask Rhiannon Tempest, who may only be three but her first visit to the Great Hall is one of wonderment.

I ask which her favourite engine is. “All of them,” she replies.

No such dilemma for Zoë Roberts. She is another of the explainers and for her, Duchess of Hamilton takes pride of place. It’s a streamlined masterpiece of Art Deco engineering and Zoe says many visitors find it hard to believe that it’s British, not American.

“It’s just so striking,” says Zoë. “You could come here with no interest at all in railways and then see something like the Duchess which triggers such a powerful response.”

And response is something the NRM has in spades. Zoë believes people’s perceptions of dusty old museums are out of date and it certainly is here. This place is lively and noisy.

But it’s not only about iconic trains. Zoë is also a project developer and her latest assignment is to teach children about climate change. Not only at the museum, as she and other members of the learning staff go out to schools on outreach programmes to encourage a better understanding of science.

“We can use our displays to teach anything from social history to science in so many ways – or maths – and the learning team tries to make coming to the museum something the children couldn’t experience at school and, when they get back, to explore the subjects in more depth.”

But Zoë has no doubt the giant locos will always be the biggest draw.

“We are very lucky here that our collection is so automatically engaging as soon as you walk in. We want people to leave having discovered something inspiring; something they didn’t know before they came.”

Andy Lickley, from Selby, joined the museum from school three years ago. He was brought up on a diet of Thomas the Tank Engine and says his job is the stuff of childhood dreams.

But some youngsters threaten to derail Andy’s patter. Like the little girl who asked what would happen if a dinosaur got on the track. He admits being stumped for an answer.

“You get some youngsters who stand in the cab with their eyes wide, unable to take it all in. And every boy wants to be a train driver, but they want to drive steam trains. Sadly they can’t do that any more.”

One of the real pleasures for Andy is meeting visitors who worked as drivers or firemen on steam trains.

“That’s really nice because they have stories to tell which enhances my knowledge. And if I ever get it wrong they’ll put me right.”

Not surprising if he does. The locos in the Great Hall are complex pieces of engineering. In the far corner is the Japanese Bullet Train, then there is a Chinese loco that weighs as much as 5,000 ten-year-olds. Not to mention The Mallard, a fine example of when we ruled the railway world.

Or even better, The Flying Scotsman which NRM saved from being sold abroad in 2004. Since then it has been restored and is about to return to mainline service. The Scotsman was back for a sneak preview at the NRM last weekend and will return again for the whole of August.

There’s no doubt that people are fascinated by the sight of these great steam trains but there is also the paraphernalia that goes with the golden age of rail and Adam Fozard is about to set the museum’s turntable in motion.

“We do a number of talks every day and the turntable is one of the most popular, I think because it’s larger than life,” says Adam. “In summer we can get 600 people crowded round trying to get a glimpse. We tell them a few things beforehand but really they just want to see it going.”

Truth is most people have never seen a turntable because electric trains have a cab at both ends so they are no longer required. There has always been one at the NRM from its days as an engine shed; now it’s one of the last examples in the country.

Learning and fun are the watchwords here and the explainers take having a good time seriously. So much so that seven-year-old Sam Pointon was appointed Director of Fun a couple of years ago after applying to be the new museum chief. Staff at the museum were startled when they received his letter saying: “I am only six, but I think I can do this job.” But they were so touched by his enthusiasm they took him on.

Now Sam’s job is to make sure the museum remains as fun as possible. And while Newton may have made it too difficult with all those big words, the learning staff at the NRM are also helping to make science friendlier with their giant locomotives and interactive workshops, not to mention those cuddly elephants.

Just don’t ask them what to do if a dinosaur strays on to the track.

• Before the National Railway Museum was in existence, the Science Museum in London started its collection of railway artefacts by acquiring Stephenson’s Rocket in 1862.

From the late nineteenth century, railway companies began to preserve their past: the most prolific being the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER), which opened the York Railway Museum at Queen Street in 1927.

British Railways later opened the Museum of British Transport in London, but the Beeching Report recommended BR should stop running museums. The 1968 Transport Act encouraged BR to work with the Science Museum to develop a National Railway Museum which opened at Leeman Road, York in 1975, using a former steam locomotive depot. It was the first national museum outside London In 1990, Station Hall was built and nearly doubled the size of the museum.