Evening Star, one of the locomotives on display at '1968 and All That'. © National Railway Museum

Following a nationwide appeal, the National Railway Museum in York has been inundated with steamy recollections for use in a national archive, but is still on the look out for more.

In the run up to the museum’s nine-day gala, ‘1968 and All That’, celebrating the 40th anniversary of the end of steam, members of the public have been offering their memories of the time when steam ended on Britain’s railways.

Catherine Farrell, press officer at the NRM said: “We have been contacted by people who were passengers on the '15 guinea special,' the last ever BR steam-hauled run on August 11 1968, the men who worked across the railway network those last precious years of steam, as well as the wide-eyed enthusiasts that scrambled up hillsides, binoculars in hand, to watch the last steam trains in their area pass by.”

Oliver Cromwell has been restored in time for the gala. © National Railway Museum

So far, most of these responses have been from Yorkshire and Lancashire, and NRM are now hoping to hear from more people in the south, midlands and Scotland in particular.

Oliver Cromwell, the last steam express locomotive in service, will be on show as part of ‘1968 and All That’, which runs from May 24 – June 1 2008. The gala will also include steam train rides, stalls and displays, and access to locomotive cabs and footplates.

“Many of those involved in the events of ‘68 will be quite elderly now, so now is the right time to capture those precious memories for posterity,” said the event's organiser Matt Thompson.

If you would like to share your memories, email pressoffice@nrm.org.uk or write to: Steam Memories, Press Office, National Railway Museum, Leeman Road York YO26 4XJ.