The Transportation Museum     Andrew Mancini, Director

Playing in the background in the London Underground Exhibit Room, or more commonly known as 'the Tube Room,' Mind the Gap was a commonly-heard phrase for guests in the museum.

 

As guests walked around the room, with the lights off, while staring at the Tube Map, guests could get a sense of what traveling on the London Underground is for everyday passengers and tourists alike.

 

For those guests that had been on the London Underground, they could relive that experience, without the tightness and smelliness of a hot and sweaty Tube train.

 

At the 2014 museum, a computer was hooked up to a camera above that recorded and monitored the guests in the exhibit room.

 

Many guests saw themselves on the computer screen, but had no idea how they were being recorded. In fact, many guests looked around and eventually saw the camera that was filming them.

 

In the Underground system, there are 15,216 CCTV Cameras, which film the average Londoner 30-40 times per trip. The station with the most cameras is Kings Cross St. Pancras, with 408! To read more about the history of CCTV Cameras and learn facts, click here.

 

 

Why not have some fun playing games while learning about the London Underground? This year, we had 3 games for everyone to play, plus building a tunnel.

 

First off, they could challenge themselves or other guests into a game of guessing which Tube announcements in front of them were real, and which were not. Click here to play the game.

 

Next to Spoof Tube Announcements was another fun game, British to English Words, click here to play the game. In this game, guests had to match the English words to the British words that were provided. This game was challenging, because guests could match a few correctly, but were left with a few words that were pretty hard. 

 

Lastly, in 'the Tube Room,' guests could play London's Travelers, where 2 or 4 guests challenged the other player or team through a race on the London Underground. Looking at the big map in front of them, guests had to get from one destination to another correctly (connecting lines and going through transfer stations). So it was pretty easy, since guests could find the lines that got to their destination. But, then the challenge was to get from the start to the destination stopping at as little stations as possible. Do you think you can beat your friends or family? You can play the game right here, and click here to see the Tube map.

Near our famous slot car track, we had a hit exhibit on building tunnels. Guests could actually create a stable tunnel made out of sand, and then put a train inside of it, without collapsing the tunnel!

 

First, guests filled up a clear plastic box, and then shoveled in as much fake sand that could fit in it. Then, the guests smoothed the top of the sand, put the lid of the box on top, and then began to dig a hole through the side of the box with a metal PVC pipe. The box had a small hole on the side of it that had been cut out, but still had the top edge connected to the box. The guests would keep digging a straight line through the box, occasionally stopping to empty out their pipe. When they reached the other side, they would insert a train car and then could see from the back of the box the tunnel they had built.