The Electric Railway Museum was located in Warwickshire, south-east of Coventry, near the village of Baginton. The heritage railway centre was immediately adjacent to Coventry Airport and so it was also known as "The Airfield Line". The site was managed by the Electric Railway Museum Limited, and was home to a sizeable collection of preserved electric multiple units, which was the most diverse and historically significant collection of EMUs in the UK, containing unique items that are the last survivors of once typical and numerous classes. In addition, there are were small industrial electric locomotives, two small industrial diesel locomotives, and one small industrial petrol locomotive, along with some other railway vehicles, which are owned by third parties. The land was leased from Coventry City Council, though it is located just outside the city boundary and is in the county of Warwickshire. On 9 July 2017, it was announced that, owing to the site being sold for development, the museum would close on 8 October 2017.
History
Coventry Steam Railway Centre
The site was originally established as the Coventry Steam Railway Centre in 1986 by a group who set out to preserve Hudswell Clarke0-6-0tank locomotive number 1857. The group established the site and located the locomotive and other collected items of motive power, rolling stock and infrastructure, including Little Bowden Junction Midland RailwaySignal Box there. The land was previously used as part of the municipal water treatment works and there had never been any railway infrastructure there until the creation of the Centre.
Suburban Electric Railway Association
With a small membership, progress was slow and by the mid-1990s had slowed nearly to a halt. The late nineties saw one of the original founders retire due to ill health and he sold his interest in the site to a consortium of Suburban Electric Railway Association members, except the tank engine which was sold to another railway. By 2004, the other founders had left and SERA took over sole running of the site.
Electric Railway Museum
In 2009, the responsibility of managing the site passed to Electric Railway Museum Limited, a charitable company which had been established in 2008 to create a permanent home for preserving and representing Britain's electric railway heritage. With this development, the original Coventry Railway Centre Limited company was wound up and its assets passed to Electric Railway Museum Limited. The site was open to the public, and group and individual visits could be admitted by prior booking.
Track layout
The track layout comprised two three road fans of sidings. Those at the end of the site adjacent to the Midlands Air Museum are complete with a headshunt that runs through a 40-metre cutting that was excavated by the members of the original steam centre in the early nineties. The sidings nearest Rowley Road were unconnected. The sidings were protected by an inner fence to create a secure compound.
Facilities
Other improvements made to the site by Electric Railway Museum in late 2009 included the provision of mains electricity on site and state-of-the-art CCTV equipment.
Stock
The vast majority of items not being actively restored were sheeted over to protect them from rusting, vandalism, and other damage.
On 9 July 2017, it was announced that, owing to the site being sold for development, the museum would close on 8 October 2017. The future of the museum and its collection of unique electric multiple units and other items was uncertain at that time, with efforts to raise £10,000 underway to cover the costs of moving the stock to an as yet unknown location. Ruston & Hornsby 88 diesel shunter, nicknamed "Crabtree", and BR Class 309 unit 960 101 were moved to the Tanat Valley Light Railway in May 2018 with the EMU to serve as a static museum and buffet train at Nantmawr.
