Conditions of entry
While you are at the museum please take care of your own health and safety and our collections. In order to ensure a safe and enjoyable experience for everyone, please
do not:
- Touch objects on open display
- Smoke in the Museum (including electronic cigarettes)
- Disregard alarms, signs, barriers or directions given by staff
- Leave personal property unattended
- Eat and drink other than in designated areas
- Bring in to the Museum any restricted item (see below)
- Fundraise, demonstrate or distribute campaigning material, without prior
- Agreement
- Ride bicycles, scooters or any other wheeled item
Children under 12 must be accompanied by an adult.
Other age restrictions may apply for particular experiences in the Museum, for example our steam locomotive rides and Miniature Railway. For Education groups, separate advice and guidance on supervision of children is available in the Learning section.
Visitors are permitted to use hand-held cameras in the museum for private and non-commercial purposes, but must not:
- Use cameras in any areas where video or photography is restricted—this will always be clearly indicated
- Make any recording or take any photograph of any person without the authorisation of that person
Non-private or commercial use of cameras/recording devices and the use of tripods or lighting is only allowed by prior arrangement.
WiFi is available throughout the museum—look for the network 'Free Museum Wi-Fi'.
Please look after your personal property while at the museum. Any property left unattended may be removed from the museum floor. If you lose any item during your
visit, please speak to a member of staff.
Please do not bring the following on to museum premises:
- Alcohol. Alcohol may only be consumed, if purchased on site, in a designated area
- Clothing with offensive signage or logos
- Animals, with exception of Assistance Dog
- Potentially dangerous items such as fireworks or knives. Knives which are carried for religious or cultural observance (such as the Kirpan) are normally exempt from this polic
- Any clothing or item worn deliberately to obscure the face, but with the exception of items worn for religious or cultural observance such as a Niqab or Burkha
- Balloons, as these can interfere with our alarm systems if they float away
We will sometimes conduct bag searches on arrival at the museum. The searches look for restricted items and any other material that might be considered a risk to our
collection, or to the health and safety and enjoyment of our visitors.
Any items found will be removed at the bag-searching point will be recorded and returned to the visitor on departure. If our staff finds anything they consider to be illegal, they will confiscate it and contact the Police.
Our visitors are welcome to breastfeed anywhere on site.
All our staff are identifiable from their National Railway Museum passes. There is a Duty Manager on site whenever we are open to the public, to ensure that you have a safe and enjoyable visit.
If our staff think you may be causing unreasonable offence to other visitors, or are endangering yourself, others, our property or our collections, they will ask you to stop. Our staff have the authority to escort you from the museum if necessary.
We will not tolerate abuse or violence towards any visitor, contractor or member of staff.
CCTV is in use throughout the museum; images are recorded for the purpose of public safety and crime prevention, in line with Data Protection legislation.
