The Simon Layfield Exhibition Centre was formally opened on the 15th November 2015
by Andrew Brown, The High Sheriff of Rutland.
The Exhibition Centre houses many of our ironstone quarry-related steam and diesel engines, some operational, some in the process of renovation and some that will remain as static exhibits.
Housed in the exhibition centre is “Singapore” – our historically-famous steam locomotive.
Singapore was built at the Forth Banks Works of shipwrights Hawthorn, Leslie & Company. Purchased new by the Admiralty Dockyards in 1936, she was delivered to the Royal Navy dockyard in Singapore. During WW2 “Singapore” continued to work in the dockyards including during its occupation by Japanese forces.
Repatriated to the UK in 1953, the loco worked at the Chatham Dockyards as “Yard No 440” until 1972, when she retired into preservation here at Rutland.
“Singapore” is now registered as a national war memorial for Far Eastern Prisoners of War 1941-1945.
As custodians of this war memorial, the Museum is supported by NFFWRA (National FEPOW Fellowship Welfare and Remembrance Association) and COFEPOW (Children of Far East Prisoners of War) organisations.
