Riverside Museum

The two locomotives on the move are Locomotive No.9 and the Highland Railways Jones Goods locomotive.

All the locos are moved by specialist contractors using a swan necked low loaders, each locomotive and tender are put on to separate trailers. They are winched on, and then covered in 2 layers of polythene and a tarpaulin for transport to the new Museum. Each loco is then driven on the low loader to the Riverside Museum and installed into its final display position.

We can’t say too much right now, except that visitors to the new museum will have very different views of both of these locos!

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Within conservation, steam-cleaning is used on a variety of materials, from ceramics to vehicles. It’s a versatile piece of kit that is excellent at removing ground-in dirt. 

The process works by heating water in a boiler, which converts the liquid to vapour that exits the machine via a nozzle. (Be careful not to scald yourself on the nozzle!) The steam loosens dirt on hard surfaces and in soft fibres so it can be wiped or vacuumed. The vapour in a steam-cleaner contains approximately 5% water, which is drier than the air we breathe.

It also offers the opportunity to try to take cool pictures of steaming objects! Here we have transport conservator Jacek Wiklo removing dirt from the underside of the “room and kitchen tram”, while I used the steam-cleaner to get the oil and grease off this bicycle.

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There are many objects, large and small, being decanted from the current Museum of Transport at Kelvin Hall to either their new home at the Riverside Museum or our excellent storage facility at Glasgow Museums Resource Centre in Nitshill.

But it’s not just locomotives, trams, ship models and other transport-related objects that are leaving MOT. We also have a vast amount of paperwork, photographs, historical documentation and books from the museum’s library and record store that need to be assessed, packed and shipped out of the building.

The Riverside Museum Project’s admin team, visitor assistants and volunteers have the task of accurately recording, packaging, storing and moving every single piece of paper out of the building. It’s no easy task!

The pictures above show visitor assistants Callum Hartley and Craig Reilly and admin assistant Linda Simi preparing the papers, books and boxes for removal from the museum.

When the archiving is complete, all of the paperwork will be stored at GMRC to allow future access. There will also be a very detailed comprehensive file list which will easily direct staff to the referenced boxes. 

Angela Pluck, senior project administrator, estimates that by the end of the archiving process there will be a total of 200 boxes packed.  To date the team have archived 46 – each of those containing around 6kg of printed documents.

In 1982, war artist Linda Kitson set sail on the Clyde-built QE2, along with troops heading for the Falkland Islands. In the film below, curator David Scott outlines Linda’s journey on QE2 and describes how her drawings captured the intimate details of life on board.

The new Riverside Museum in Glasgow, opening in 2011, will share some of Linda’s drawings alongside the museum’s QE2 ship model, presenting a new perspective on this much-loved ship.

This webcast is the of a series of broadcasts published by the Riverside Museum Appeal. Click here to watch more of the RMA’s videos examining Riverside’s displays. Find out about our stories featuring Scotland’s earliest cars, the razzle dazzle ship models, prams in the city, stylish dress shops, rally hero Colin McRae, and Glasgow’s cinemas.

To make a donation to the Riverside Museum Appeal, please click here.

In 1995 Colin McRae became the youngest person to win the World Rally Championships. His race-winning Subaru rally car is one of the objects to feature in the new Riverside Museum in Glasgow. 

In the film below, curator Alex Robertson talks about the nail-biting 1995 tournament, and describes how Colin’s Subaru will feature in the new museum.

This webcast is one of a series of broadcasts published by the Riverside Museum Appeal. Click here to watch more of the RMA’s videos examining Riverside’s displays. Find out about our stories featuring Scotland’s earliest cars, the razzle dazzle ship models, prams in the city, stylish dress shops, the QE2 at war and Glasgow’s cinemas.

To make a donation to the Riverside Museum Appeal, please click here.

A boat speeds past the south window of the Riverside Museum during the preparations for the Tall Ship’s sail to dry dock.

The threat of rain in the foreboding sky added to the atmosphere for the shot. Converting the digital image to greyscale helped create more impact. With perfect timing, once the ship had passed, the rain came down in buckets.

What links a horse-drawn carriage and a car? The new Riverside Museum in Glasgow, opening in 2011, will show off the city’s definitive collection of Scottish cars. In the short clip below, curator Alex Robertson describes the coachbuilding display that will reveal how the men who built horse-drawn carriages turned their expert hands to constructing the earliest motorcars.

This webcast is one of a series of broadcasts published by the Riverside Museum Appeal. Click here to watch more of the RMA’s videos examining Riverside’s displays. Find out about our stories featuring rally hero Colin McRae, the razzle dazzle ship models, prams in the city, stylish dress shops, the QE2 at war and Glasgow’s cinemas.

To make a donation to the Riverside Museum Appeal, please click here.

When it opens in 2011, Glasgow’s Riverside Museum will display more clothing and uniform than any of the city’s other museums. In the video below, textiles conservator Maggie Dobbie describes the six stunning dresses that will be on show in Riverside’s re-created streets.

This webcast is one of a series of broadcasts published by the Riverside Museum Appeal. Click here to watch more of the RMA’s videos examining Riverside’s displays. Find out about our stories featuring rally hero Colin McRae, the razzle dazzle ship models, prams in the city, the earliest motorcars, the QE2 at war and Glasgow’s cinemas.

To make a donation to the Riverside Museum Appeal, please click here.

In this webcast from the Riverside Museum Appeal, curator Heather Robertson talks about Riverside’s pram display and explains some of the changes in pram design since the 1950s.

Click here to watch more of the RMA’s videos examining Riverside’s displays. Find out about our stories featuring rally hero Colin McRae, the razzle dazzle ship models, the earliest motorcars, the QE2 at war, Glasgow’s cinemas and a rack of designer dresses.

To make a donation to the Riverside Museum Appeal, please click here.

In the Riverside Museum Appeal’s recent series of webcasts, curator Neil Symington unveils how the Riverside Museum will capture the glitz and glamour of Glasgow’s cinemas during the 1930s and ’40s. This was a time when the city was home to more than 130 cinemas, with some film fanatics attending every day of the week!

Click here to watch more of the RMA’s videos examining Riverside’s displays. Find out about our stories featuring rally hero Colin McRae, the razzle dazzle ship models, the earliest motorcars, the QE2 at war, prams in the city and a rack of designer dresses.

To make a donation to the Riverside Museum Appeal, please click here.