The Workshops Rail Museum

We went to a very very cool museum yesterday, The Workshops Rail Museum. The museum is in Ipswich, a city about 40 minutes from Brisbane. The site was originally the Queensland Rail's workshops and has been there since the 1880s. Now, a portion of the place is part of the Queensland Museum and houses all the different trains that have been in Queensland. The remaining areas are still used by Queensland Rail to overhaul the old steam trains. They also still manufacture some of the tools that are used by the railways today.

This school holidays, the museum setup some activities based on "The Great Train Robbery". During one of the shows, Aaron stuck his hand up when volunteers were asked for and he ended up being the robber.



They were both very ineffective and dazed looking robbers!



I liked this display a lot. Maybe its because it has the old sign from 'our' station here.


For me, the most interesting part of the day was the tour of the blacksmith's shop.


The shop has been there since the 1880s but I'm sure they didn't have women working there back then. The person holding on to the red hot steel is a very tough looking woman.


For those of you familiar with the Thomas and Friends characters, here are a few photos of the trains I think they were modeled after.

Thomas himself. Unfortunately, we couldn't step over the yellow line to take a photo from the other side.


Skarloey...


These two aren't trains, but here are Trevor and George. Aren't they cute?


The visit to this museum was so enjoyable because it was catered to children yet still had plenty to keep the parents interested. Its a perfect place for families to spend the day. We enjoyed it so much that by the end of our visit, we upgraded our tickets to an annual membership. They have Thomas and his friends coming during the Christmas so we'll definitely be back.