HS2 has worked with Birmingham science museum, Thinktank, to launch a new exhibition celebrating the city’s connection to the railways in the past, present and future.

The exhibition is being run as part of the nationwide ‘Railway 200’ celebration.

It will be in place for a year, starting from this Saturday (27 September), bicentenary day of the world’s first locomotive-hauled passenger train journey on the Stockton and Darlington Railway.

The exhibition shows the original construction of the Kilsby Tunnel almost 200 years ago. The tunnel is on the route of the original London-to-Birmingham railway, and took nearly five years to complete, with workers – known as ‘navvies’ – using pickaxes and dynamite.

The tunnel is near Daventry, and was upgraded in 2020.

The exhibition at Thinktank also shows how HS2’s engineers safely completed the first section of the 3.5-mile Bromford Tunnel, which links North Warwickshire and Birmingham, and which broke through in May this year.

HS2 boasts that the exhibition is family-friendly and interactive.

It includes an immersive audio-visual experience illustrating HS2’s engineering and technology advances. It also plays the sounds of a 1,600-tonne tunnel boring machine (TBM). T

wo cutter discs from one of HS2’s giant TBMs will be on display.

HS2’s partnership with Thinktank aims to encourage people to learn about the new high-speed railway and perhaps even play a role in building it.

“I’m immensely proud to finish my career working on HS2, a monumental feat of engineering that will ultimately bring the UK’s two biggest cities closer together. Knowing that rail passengers of the future will speed through the tunnels I have helped to build really is a privilege.

“As my career draws to a close, I look to the young men and women that have joined us as apprentices and graduates with admiration, knowing that they will play an important role in shaping the next 200 years of Britain’s rail story. Hopefully one or two visitors to the museum will feel inspired to join them too.”

Tunnelcraft Pit Boss, Steve Rocke, who managed the underground team that built the Bromford Tunnel.