Brighton trams and trolleybuses

Put it there! Deciding how to arrange the display

We've just raised the Ted Bayley "Brighton Pavilion" model up a few inches to create a new display area for Brighton trolleybuses and trams.

The final version of the display now has a double-row of fourteen trams, trolleybuses and buses showing their evolution from horsedrawn trams, through steam, electric and diesel.

This is all part of the "Glamour of Brighton" display in the museum's foyer.

Frank Hornby Week at the Museum

We are celebrating Frank Hornby's 150th Birthday this year!
Between  Saturday 11th May and Sunday 19th May 2013 we are hosting Frank Hornby Week. See the programme of events here.
More information about the Frank Hornby Project and associated events around the country is available here.

Volunteering

Volunteers are a fundamental part of the museum's success and are involved in almost every aspect of its running, including dealing with visitors, administration, marketing, education and maintaining the collection's inventory.

We are constantly looking for new volunteers to join our friendly team. There are various roles available on a short-term and long-term basis.

To find out more, read the volunteer information pack. You can send your application back to us by post or email.

Magnus Volk and His Amazing Railways

On Saturday the 2nd of February we were lucky to host Ian Gledhill, who came to talk about the inventor and entrepreneur, Magnus Volk. Ian, being a wonderful story teller and a knowledge-bank on the life of Magnus Volk, dedicated almost 2 hours telling glorious stories of the engineer, keeping the audience mesmerised. Magnus Volk is most famous for the Volk’s Electric Railway, which runs to this day along Brighton seafront. The gifted engineer brought many innovations to Brighton and showed great determination to stand up against the opposition in his time to bring his vision to the people.

Brighton and Rottigdean Railway
 (Daddy Long Legs) Model

Volk was the first person in Brighton to have a telephone, the first to have electricity in his house and was even titled as an "electrician" on his marriage certificate, long before electricity even came to Brighton.

A few people were lucky to enjoy this experience. The Museum is keen for more people to hear the story about a man of such merit, whose contributions to science and history extend beyond just Brighton.

Ironically, most of Volk's struggle in his quest to innovate and expand came not from technical challenges, but barriers placed by the Brighton Council of the day! Eventually, his achievements were recognised and the Council took upon themselves to keep his work alive.
 
With the help of projector and his oratory, Ian not only told us the story of this prominent inventor but also entertained us with his sense of humor. At the end of the story, he unraveled a big surprise to the audience, a scale model of Daddy Long Legs made by Volk himself before he built the real railway, about 130 years ago. Everyone took out their cameras to capture this relic from the past.

Ian Gledhill giving the talk

Magnus Volk and His Amazing Railways

On Saturday 2nd February at 7pm Ian Gledhill will present a talk about Magnus Volk and the Volk’s Electric Railway which has been running along Brighton Seafront for 129 years! The other not less remarkable creation and probably the most recognisable was the Brighton and Rottingdean Seashore Railway (Daddy Long Legs). Ian had a diverse career in tourism and travel, music, television and theatre, as well as railway engineering. He currently divides his time between directing operas, helping to support Volk’s Railway and giving talks to the public. You can purchase a ticket in advance for £5 at the museum or for £6 on the door.

Volk's Electric Railway Carriage N6 Model at Brighton Toy and Model Museum (on loan from Volks' Electric Railway  Association)

Brighton to Rottingdean Seashore Electric Railway Model at Brighton Toy and Model Museum (on loan from Volks' Electric Railway Association)

Frank Hornby 150th Anniversary

The Frank Hornby 150th Anniversary logo, in dark red.

2013 is the 150th anniversary of the birth of British toymaking pioneer Frank Hornby.

Hornby didn't just invent Hornby Trains: he also invented Dinky Toys, and he got his start when he invented Meccano, originally as a way of making it easier to make toys for his own children out of strips of cut-up biscuit tins.

Hornby patented the idea behind his modular metal construction kit in 1901, and the system evolved to become "Mechanics Made Easy", an educational system for teaching engineering principles to children, before being given the more catchy name of "Meccano".

Meccano Ltd. grew to become an international company with headquarters at Binns Road, Liverpool, and Hornby became a millionaire and a Member of Parliament.

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The Museum has just been awarded a grant by the Heritage Lottery Fund to help it to celebrate 2013 as Frank Hornby Year. The grant will pay for a full-time Project Officer for a year to rewrite and dramatically expand our online resources for Meccano, Dinky Toys and Hornby Trains, and to set up a project website at FrankHornby150.org to hold a directory of participating groups and organisations, and a calendar of their 2013 events. We'll also be holding events focussing on Frank Hornby Week (13th-19th May 2013), launching the programme at the 2013 ModelWorld exhibition in February, and doing some other Very Cool Stuff including some very exciting things on the Museum floor with new technology to allow visitors to access information from the Museum floor. 

As well as its Meccano exhibits, the Museum has what we believe to be the best collection of early Hornby Trains on public display anywhere in the World (in Arch Four), and this grant will let us finally install information systems that can do these collections justice. We're also hoping to bring in some new guest exhibits for 2013 to mark the anniversary.

More information to follow as these exciting developments unfold ...

Magic Lantern Show

On the 7th December the museum was transformed into a different world by the "Magic Lantern" show. The Victorian predecessor of the film camera, called the Magic Lantern, was projecting images of Christmas, local scenery and other themes, accompanied by the Pepper's Ghost Company's quartet, who were reading  poems, playing music and singing along to some truly enhancing music.

During the Victorian times, this was a highly popular leisure activity for the nobility and common people alike. Travelling companies would tour the country, showing amusing images and scenery from across the land in theatres. Public institutions would often have their own one and even families that could afford a simpler version would use the lantern to entertain themselves during friends and family gatherings.

The beauty of magic lantern is that it not only projects still images but it projects the images that are also moving, fading and so on, making the experience similar of the film.

The museum was packed to capacity with the audience transfixed by the images and everyone felt like they had been transported into the Victorian times. The museum already has a magical quality about it and the light effects bouncing off the glass cabinets only added to that.

Mulled wine, made to a Victorian recipe, was served during the show.