To find out exactly what's hidden at the site in between Swanwick and Ripley, Stephen Sinfield from the
Ripley and Heanor News paid them a visit.
The museum, which this year celebrates its 25th anniversary, is kept running by a small band of full time staff and many loyal volunteers who dedicate hours of their time and their own money to renovate exhibits.
Alan Calladine, publicity officer at the museum, said: "I have been employed here for about 21 years now and before that I had been visiting the site regularly ever since I was about 13-years-old.
"When the museum first arrived at Butterley, there was hardly anything here, even the track was about to be lifted."
The original train station at Butterley was
demolished in 1968, and the lines hadn't been used for regular passenger traffic since 1948.
In just 25 years, the museum has turned a derelict site into a full working museum complete with engineering workshops and a working farm attracting around 140,000 visitors every year. Plus you can tie the knot at the centre and have a funeral service and burial within the grounds.
Helping to draw in the crowds is perhaps Britain's best loved engine, Thomas. Alan Calladine added: "We now have our own Thomas engine which is used for a number of special days throughout the year, however, is he so popular, he is regularly contracted out to other railways across the country.
Also housed at the Swanwick site is the Princess Royal Class
Locomotive Trust.
Within a purpose built shed lies The Princess Margaret Rose and the Duchess of Sutherland. Both engines have claims to fame, The Duchess of Sutherland is the only preserved steam locomotive to have hauled the royal train – most
memorably on the Queens Golden Jubilee tour. And the Princess Margaret Rose attained a speed record for her class of 102.5 mph in 1936. When withdrawn from mainline service, the Princess Margaret had run over 1.5 million miles.
All of the impressive engines at the site have taken years of restoration work, Alan added: "We have a good reputation for our restoration work. Some of it is carried out by our volunteers who also hold down full time jobs.
"However, as we prefer to use as many traditional techniques as possible such as hot riveting instead of welding, finding skilled people and materials is getting more difficult, therefore we now try and train people ourselves."
Around the site there are many bits and pieces of rolling stock, diesel engines, wagons and carriages, all waiting for their spell of attention. It's estimated that the museum has enough restoration work on dormant carriages alone to last the team 250 years.
Two of the volunteers at the museum are locomotive driver Tony Morton and fireman Roy Jones.
As I hitched a lift on the footplate of a 1956
Derby-built locomotive, Tony explained how he drives buses for a living, and takes to trains during his spare time.
Tony said: " Everybody assumes that we all must be 'anoraks', but it's not like that, many of the volunteers here have a history in working in the industry and they just like to carry on doing what they once enjoyed."
As the site celebrates its silver anniversary, work continues to enable the attraction to grow and improve. A major new development completed just months ago is a mini-exhibition marking the history of the fork lift truck, and due to fully open next year is another mini-
exhibition displaying many makes and models of buses and steam engines.
Volunteer fireman Roy Jones added: "You meet a lot of interesting people, but what surprises me most is that we attract visitors from Canada, across Europe and even Japan; yet you can travel two miles up the road and not only find someone who hasn't visited the site, but
probably find somebody that doesn't even know we exist."
Perhaps its time we appreciate the silver plated treasure that lies at the Midland Railway Centre. For more information contact 01773 570140.

By Stephen Sinfield