National Railway Museum

It is the national collection of railways, it is free, and from Thirsk it is closer than most of the places people drive an hour to reach. The train takes about twenty minutes and the museum is at the far side of York station, so the whole trip works without a car, a car park or a single wrong turn. For a town on the East Coast Main Line, where half the children in Thirsk can already tell you what is passing through, that is a good day out sitting almost on the doorstep.

Inside, the scale is the thing. The Great Hall is built around a working turntable with locomotives parked nose-in all round it, from early engines that look hand-made to the record breakers. There is a vast beam engine standing against a window wall, carriages you can walk through, and a model railway that adults stand at for longer than they will admit. It is one of the most visited museums in the country, and not only by people who care about trains.

From Tea Time Cafe at 87 Market Place, walk to Thirsk station, allowing 25 to 30 minutes on the flat, or take a taxi from the rank by the clock on the square. Trains to York are TransPennine Express and Grand Central, roughly one an hour, 16 to 23 minutes. LNER runs through Thirsk without stopping, so it will not help you.

At York, the museum is on Leeman Road at the back of the station. There is a direct route over the footbridge from the platforms, which is quick but has stairs. With a pushchair or a wheelchair, use the step-free route through the Marble Arch tunnel and along Hudson Boulevard instead; both are signposted. The York Central building site has moved these routes around more than once, so follow the signs rather than an old memory of the walk.

If you drive, it is about 40 minutes, and parking is 10 a day in the museum's own car park, paid inside at either building. The car park is small and fills by about 11am on a weekend or in the school holidays. Blue Badge parking is free. Coaches have a drop-off point but nowhere to park.

Start in the Great Hall at the turntable, which is the picture everyone comes for and the easiest way to get your bearings. Work round the locomotives, then find the carriages: royal saloons and ordinary compartments alike, and the difference between them is the point. Wonderlab is the interactive gallery and is ticketed separately, so decide on that before the children see the sign.

The model railway is worth the detour, and it is the exhibit that holds mixed-age groups longest. Leave time for the shop, which is better than most museum shops, and remember that the museum is mid-rebuild: a new Central Hall is going up to join the two halves together, and while that work goes on, galleries shut for periods and the two halls each have their own entrance.

Free admission on a day out of this size is the headline, and it changes what the day costs: a family can go by train, spend nothing at the door and put the money into lunch instead. The second feature is the proximity. Twenty minutes on a train, a few minutes on foot, and you are inside one of the biggest museums in the north without having driven anywhere.

Go on a weekday in term time if you can, which the museum itself names as its quietest period. Book the free timed ticket if you are going in a school holiday, because walk-up entry gets slower when the place is full. Check the visit page the week you travel, since galleries close for building work at short notice. If you are driving, arrive before 11am or plan to park in York and walk. And build the day so the train back puts you in Thirsk in time for afternoon tea, which is about the easiest booking to make in advance.