When the National Railway Museum decided to move a Japanese Bullet train into its Great Hall eight years ago, Director Andrew Scott had no idea what he'd let himself in for.
Aside from being based thousands of miles away in the Japanese town of Fukuoka, the 130 mile-an-hour train was big enough to transport armies of people on their daily commutes, and wider than British rail tracks.
They worked with Japanese experts to take it to York, but the final UK stretch to the building called for drastic measures. "Railtrack rose to the occasion and agreed to shut down the East Coast London to Edinburgh route in the small hours of a Sunday morning," recalls Scott, speaking after announcing his retirement from the popular Museum where he has spent the past 15 years.
"They had to temporarily move about 30 signals and switchboxes which would have been in the way and we had to make special couplings to join the Japanese vehicle to the UK locomotive which towed it. I'm one of only two people in the world who have travelled in a Bullet train along the East Coast Mainline, albeit at about five miles an hour."
The track-trailing adventure isn't the only reason 2001 was a memorable one for Scott and his team - they also won the European Museum of the Year Award and established themselves as one of the most visited museums outside of London. The museum has built a strong reputation by moving collection items, vehicles, archives and libraries out of storage and into fully-accessible housing.
Scott says the series of moves have been his proudest achievement but his most astonishing could be on the way in the form of a planned £20 million redevelopment, NRM+, which recently succeeded at the first stage of funding.
"The NRM is a world-class organisation and I am sad to be leaving at such an exciting time in its history," admits Scott, who will step down at the end of the year having reached 60, a birthday he sees as "a milestone age."
He'll be staying active in local heritage events, and says he is "honoured" to have been involved in the plans, scheduled for completion in time for Yorkshire's celebrations of the 2012 Olympics.
"It seemed the right time to stand back and allow someone else to take the reins," he adds. "I am confident this amazing scheme will take the Museum from strength to strength."
