Swindon’s STEAM Museum is hosting an array of fantastic fun activities for families over the February half term.

The award-winning museum, which recently enjoyed a royal visit, is located in a Grade II listed railway building and provides visitors with a look back to the golden days of the Great Western Railway and into the railways of today. The exhibits are currently focused on the people who built, travelled and ran the Great Western Railway under the direction of world-renowned Victorian engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel.

Three special exhibitions also reveal the modernisation which has taken place on the Great Western Railway including:

• High Voltage – which tells the story of the electrification of the Western network
• The Diesel Decades – which focuses on early diesel experiments by a number of rail companies
• Changing Trains – which looks at a series of events which led to the end of Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s Broad Gauge system.

Families are welcome to take part in the following events:

Bridge Building Workshop:

• Taking place on Monday the 13th and Wednesday the 15th of February at the Swindon Designer Outlet  between 10.30am to 12.30pm and 1.30pm to 3.30pm
• Families can encourage their budding civil engineers and designers to have a go at building bridges using Polydron construction materials. The sessions are fantastic for developing STEM skills.

Meet the Railway Workers Experience:

• This fortnightly event will be back on Saturday the 18th of February
• Meet the Railway Workers sees the museum’s friendly and knowledgeable volunteers run this activity and includes a great opportunity to enjoy guided tours of the museum as well as the chance to climb onboard some of the impressive Swindon-built locomotives such as:
• No. 3717 City of Truro
• No. 6000 King George V
• No. 2818

Family activities at STEAM Museum are included with the admission and are free to STEAM season ticket holders.

Further events taking place include:

An incredible 3D re-creation of The Sun:

• This free installation is available to enjoy in STEAM’s Great Western Hall from Monday the 13th to Sunday the 19th of February.
• This impressive installation will debut at STEAM Museum as part of The Festival of Tomorrow and will see a 6-metre light-based artwork utilising NASA’s data from its solar Dynamic Observatory through 360 degrees. The artwork also features smoke effects to provide vivid dimension representing the outer atmosphere of our hottest and closest star! The amazing exhibit will see 10 weeks of the sun’s life demonstrated using 12-and-a-half-minute cycles with temperatures ranging from 4,500 to 10 million degrees centigrade
• This incredible installation has been funded via the UKRI Science and Technology Facilities Council.

Councillor Matty Courtliff, Swindon Borough Council’s Cabinet Member for Culture, Heritage, Leisure and Town Centre Experience, said: “STEAM is always a great day out for all the family, especially during the school holidays. This February half-term will be no different with our educational bridge-building workshops providing plenty of fun for all budding Isambard Kingdom Brunels.

“We also have our fantastic award-winning exhibitions which tell the fascinating story of how the Great Western Railway evolved through the years and, of course, our popular Meet the Railway Workers sessions are not to be missed.

“But perhaps one of the highlights will be the 3D re-creation of the sun as part of the Festival of Tomorrow, which is well worth a visit on its own.”

To find out more or to book tickets online, please visit: www.steam-museum.org.uk