Representing Independent Road Transport Museums and Collections

Introduction

The National Association of Road Transport Museums (NARTM) is an informal organisation of museums and collections. Volunteers operate many of them, although others, such as the Glasgow and London Transport Museums are managed by full time staff.  This mix of museum types gives the opportunity to share ideas and experiences and the volunteers involved each bring their own professional skills to their projects and best practices can then be shared by all the member collections. 

NARTM has been in existence for almost 25 years and now has over 80 member organisations, with more joining each year.  The buses and coaches that form part of the NARTM collections are generally regarded as forming the nucleus of the National Collection of Buses and Coaches.  However, it must be stressed that many important examples are in private hands outside the scope of NARTM and its members.

Our Role

Many of the people involved in running transport museums are busy people and have little spare time after making significant contributions to their own projects. This is why NARTM only holds two meetings each year at the various member museums and in recent years we have visited Devon, Lincoln, Glasgow, Oxford and Portsmouth.  In between meetings, the quarterly Bulletin keeps members in touch with each other and we are often in touch.  Indeed, one of the main functions of NARTM is to put people in touch with each other and there are many instances of restoration projects progressing and spare parts being located through NARTM contacts.

NARTM’s unique service to its members is also as an information exchange about running museums – after all as so many of our members are volunteers, their skills and experiences are not within the heritage and leisure industry.  It is often the case that another project in another area has already been faced with exactly the same issues as we have today and by sharing ideas and pooling resources, progress can be made more quickly.

Over the years NARTM has also taken a lead role in campaigning on new legislation to lessen its impact on the historic bus preservation movement.  Vehicle licensing, driver licensing, tachographs and the retention of original registration numbers have all received our attention, with some success in each case through our work in conjunction with other groups within the movement.  NARTM is an authorised club which can endorse applications from historic vehicle owners to retain, or regain, the original registration of their vehicle.

The Future

NARTM is currently working closely with the Transport Trust to define the bus preservation sector of the heritage transport industry.  It is also addressing the major issues facing the movement – storage, documentation, human resources and skills, public access and the future of vehicles in preservation.  A database is now maintained which lists all vehicles in NARTM and associated collections and this will eventually form part of a decision making process to ensure that the most historically important vehicles have a secure long term future.

Contact Details

NARTM, PO BOX 5141, Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire, DE15 0ZF

Email enquiries: email@nartm.org.uk
Website feedback: website@nartm.org.uk

Membership

To become a NARTM Member, download and complete a Membership Form:

• NARTM Membership Form (pdf format, 134kb)