Opening times
We're open seven days a week, 10.00–17.00.
Last admission is at 16.30.
A typical visit takes 1.5–2 hours.
Wonderlab is open 10.00-16.30, with last admission at 15.30.
Closures
Some parts of our museum are closed while it is transformed as part of Vision 2025, including:
- Station Hall—find out more about the work
- South Yard
- Countess of York (this will reopen at the same time as Station Hall)
Wonderlab is also closed from 16–18 January for maintenance.
We have a new entrance. Our museum is now accessed from Leeman Road, near the main visitor car park. Find out more about the new entrance.
Booking tickets
We recommend booking your free museum admission in advance to save time when you get here and guarantee your admission to the museum. When you arrive, just show us your QR code so we can scan it or tell us your order number to collect your tickets.
Tickets are usually released six weeks in advance. Tickets are available further in advance for school holidays.
We're a charity and rely on donations to help us continue to share the stories of railway history. You can add a donation when booking your free tickets or when visiting the museum. You can alsodonate online. Thank you.
If your plans change, it's best tolog in to your account onlineto cancel your ticket and book a new date if you want to. Alternatively, contact the booking team on 033 0058 0058 or email us atinfo@ScienceMuseumGroup.ac.ukto exchange or return your ticket.Our phone lines can get very busy so please bear with us.
Food and drink
We have a café in Great Hall serving drinks and cakes, sandwiches and salads and a limited range of hot food. We also have the Wonderlab café serving ice-cream, shakes, drinks and cakes.
Great Hall Café is open 10.00 – 16.00
Wonderlab Café is open 10.00 – 16.30
Picnic space
Visitors are welcome to bring a packed lunch with them to eat on the benches throughout the museum.
Museum shop
Browse our extensive range of railway gifts, memorabilia, models and more at our shop in Great Hall or explore our online selection.
Visit guidelines
Conditions of entry
While you are at the museum please take care of your own health and safety and ourcollections. 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.
You must remain fully clothed while at the museum, including the wearing of footwear and tops at all times. This is for your own comfort, and to remain considerate to other visitors. You may be asked to leave if your clothing displays offensive slogans or imagery.
Other age restrictions mayapply 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 working guide and assistance animals
- 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 policy
- Any clothing or item worn deliberately to obscure the face, but with theexception 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
- Privately owned e-scooters and e-bikes. These cannot be used on our sites, must not be charged on our sites and cannot be stored inside any of our buildings
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.
We work closely with North Yorkshire Police’s specially trained Project Servator officers.
Together we use a range of security tactics to help keep people safe and allow everyone to enjoy visiting our museum.
The officers pop up unpredictably in and around the museum, but this is nothing to worry about. Feel free to talk to them if you want to find out more.
You can also play a vital role in helping to keep the museum safe by reporting anything suspicious to either a member of our staff or the police.
