East Anglia Transport Museum 50th anniversary

(All mobile phone pictures)

One night I was doing some last minute searches on things to do and see for half term / Jubilee week (No I did not plan ahead!) and found East Anglia Transport Museum , AND that it was going to host a big event on the following day because it was their 50th anniversary! I read more on their website, checked how to get there , and studied more on the event, and decided to give it a try, because I mean, how often do you come across a 50th anniversary of a museum?!

It was raining on the way when I was driving. It was raining even harder when we arrived at the Park and Ride car park! It was raining so hard that we couldn’t get out of the car so stayed inside until it’s not that heavy. Me thinking “Oh no…” Luckily after around 20-30 minutes it really did become not that heavy. So we went to catch the Park and Ride bus. 5 minutes later we arrived at the entrance of the museum and we queued up to buy tickets (tickets cannot be pre booked, I checked with the Museum last night).

We had lunch first at the cafe. Then we started looking around the place.

The ticket let you ride on the buses and trams as many times as you like. It was only the vintage car and taxi that you have to pay £1 per ride but you get the whole car to yourself (or your family) and not sharing with others like the buses and trams. This was one of the reasons why I decided to come here because they put out as many working and rideable vehicles as they can. They are not just for displays, but visitors can actually ride on them which brought you around the museum.

So we first did a bus ride to see the whole area at a glance. It is not a big museum. Mostly outdoor, with a few sheds hosting various exhibitions.

Inside the bus.

We had enough time to slowly visit the different sheds to see the exhibitions inside.

The event attracted a lot of vintage transport enthusiasts, they had cameras and video recorders. There are also lots of families with children. Apart from experiencing vintage transportation, there are also some activities to keep them entertained and learn. For example, we had to walk around the museum and collect stamps from different stations, and once finished, you’ll get a lollipop as a reward.

In one shed there are some quizzes to do.

We also love the pretend shops, displays some vintage items collected over the years such as T.V., music player, sewing machine etc.

There is a pretend post office.

The streets are also decorated like the olden times with vintage post box, telephone box, lamp posts, and road signs.

The road signs. Interesting to see they used a “torch/flame” picture as “school” (I did not know it).

There are also various vintage cars on display. We peeked inside. I pointed to J that there are only a few buttons inside the car, as compared to the millions buttons found in modern cars.

Inside of an olden day caravan.

Inside a Living Van.

Pretend garage.

First time to see it in real life.

I knew it looked familiar when I saw it! (from reading Thomas the Tank Engine to J when he was a toddler)

📌 Please visit the Museum’s website https://www.eatransportmuseum.co.uk/vehicles for more detailed background.

🍕🥪☕️Meal:

Lunch: We ate at Terminus Tearooms which is located inside the museum. Perhaps it was special event there was only a few choices of food (cold sandwiches, sausage rolls, chips) with some cakes, hot and cold drinks, and ice creams. Food was below average. My corned beef sandwich was just corned beef straight from the can, on a buttered bread. Cold and dry. Lemon tart was super sweet. But we did not mind too much as we were there for the event not really into food. The tearoom is very small by the way, with a few extra (two or three I remembered?) picnic tables outside.