Doncaster Grammar School Railway Collection: How a Yorkshire 'treasure trove' that is one of the UK's largest collections of railway memorabilia will open to the public after 80 years hidden away

Visitors will be able to pre-book slots to tour the entire collection, which was assembled by a group of schoolboys from 1936 to the 1970s, in its storage rooms at Doncaster Archives and attend a number of open days.

More material will also go on display at a rotating exhibition at the new Danum Gallery, Library and Museum building nearby, including a fascinating set of personal papers written by Sir Nigel Gresley, the former chief mechanical engineer of the LNER who designed the Mallard and Flying Scotsman during his time at Doncaster Plant Works in the 1920s.

Progress has been made in cataloguing a huge range of objects, with several surprises and various unidentified items among them, and volunteers are being recruited to bring the collection to a wider audience for the first time.

The artefacts, including locomotive nameplates, signal lamps and advertising posters, are together thought to be worth around £20million and have astounded experts who have seen them.

The charity that is now custodian of the collection is soon launching a website to raise its profile, and a touchscreen database has recently been made available to visitors to the museum, where around 500 objects are displayed.

"Our focus now is on our store in the old museum across the road, where the other 9,500 objects are. Our guiding principle has been not to just remove everything from the school tower only to store it somewhere else where nobody can see it. Being publicly accessible has driven our thinking. We want to run regular open days, which is why we need more volunteers,” explained trustee Chris Barron.

"The amount of stuff after we had emptied the tower overwhelmed us. There was so much that nobody had been aware was there. It was complete chaos, but it is now safe to visit and well-organised. It’s never been accessible before – you had to be in the know to get into the tower. We are putting together our 2024 programme of events now.”

They include the April unveiling of the Gresley Papers, discovered in the back of a cupboard blocked by heavier items stored next to it.

"Some of them are handwritten notes from when Gresley was an apprentice, and others are letters between him and his agent at Doncaster Works, Harry Harper, who was his man on the ground after he was promoted and moved to the London head office. Some of the correspondence is quite personal. Harry gave the papers to the school after he retired in 1963 and they are quite significant.”

Another unexpected find was a signed portrait of Edmund Beckett-Denison, the bitter rival to George Hudson, who was instrumental in bringing both the railway and its works to Doncaster, which was not originally on the planned route of the line between London and York. It is dated 1846, the year the bill to build the railway was passed.

"It is hard to compare, but it is one of the biggest, if not the biggest, private collections of railway memorabilia in the country. It covers the entire network.

"The collection was acquired by boys of Doncaster Grammar School (now called Hall Cross Academy), and it is sad that the old name of the school has died out and been lost to history. It existed for 600 years. I am happy that the name is still attached to the collection – I don’t know if it will change in future.”

Doncaster Council chief executive Damian Allen said: “I am delighted to see how this hidden treasure has become better known in Doncaster and beyond. The excellent working relationship between trustees and Council has been pivotal to a renaissance of interest in our city’s rail history”.