Coleford Great Western Railway Museum

I had a lovely time at Coleford GWR Museum yesterday, looking at the exhibits and chatting with the staff there. I'm a volunteer at the Mid Hants Railway and they are both volunteers at the Dean Forest Railway, so it was interesting to compare notes on railway operations during the COVID-19 pandemic!
I'd love to give more stars, but I feel there's a lot of work to be done. The volunteers I chatted to are aware of this, so it's no discredit to them.
Given the fantastic location (both in terms of being so close to the town centre and being in such a wonderful original building), there's a great opportunity for a really accessible museum which tells the story of the railway and its relevance to the area to a wide audience.
What they actually have is unquestionably an impressive collection - both in terms of its size and variety -, but much of it is chiefly interesting if you already know what you're looking at and what was used for. So much more could - and should - be done to explain these items in accessible terms.
To transform this from a collection into a really good museum would, of course, be an enormous amount of work, and the volunteers here are obviously working with very limited resources. I hope they get some more volunteers and are able to keep heading in the right direction.
Thank-you for an enjoyable visit. Keep up the good work!

Visited this wonderful little museum today and had a great time! Staff/volunteers are absolutely lovely and are happy to give you a tour and answer any questions. Would definitely recommend. The train ride looked great for kids too!

Went here for the museum was not disappointed all the people who work their are very friendly and knowledgeable of the local area and railways and generally everything their got shown around every bit of the engine shed and even got to go in a signal box and shown how it works awsome place very friendly staff well worth the visit 5*

Excellent local museum - and amazing volunteers. Learnt loads from a fantastic 15-minute summary of the principles of signalling in the beautiful restored signal box from an expert. Highly recommended.

Incredible number of full size railway items shoe-horned into a small space. Even a full size working signal box from Cogload Junction! All thanks to the effort and determination of the late Mike Rees.

This museum was a breath a fresh air. In a 'virtual' world here is a real 'hands on' museum with real people who are happy to show you around an extensive collection of railway exhibits from a full size steam loco to a signal box where you can 'have a go' at operating the levers.. Really enjoyed our visit and the train ride was great to..

Visited the Museum on Friday 9th Sep whilst on holiday, the volunteers are incredibly knowledgeable and we were given a tour of the workings of a steam engine, and of their signal box with hands-on demo. Many interesting items on display as well, so well worth a visit!

The guides here were amazing and had so much knowledge about steam engines and signalling. Learned how to operate a steam locomotive and how signal boxes used to work. Loved their working signalling system.