York – National Railway Museum (Last Cheeseburger)

As I mentioned elsewhere, the Collections Store at the National Railway Museum is my favourite part of the institution.

Not least because of exciting displays such as this, a little piece of culinary history. It’s the last microwaved burger container that was served on the Great North Eastern Railway line, the end of an era on 31 May 1999. Sounds rather nice (although I’m sure it wasn’t), a beef burger with cheese, Chinese leaf, dill pickle, onion, mustard and tomato sauce in a sesame seed bun.

The decision to give this to the National Railway Museum did make the news at the time, it was a bit of a PR stunt to advertise GNER’s new deli range. It was such a success two years later there was an announcement, GNER said that the burger was back. This time though, they didn’t microwave it, although I’m unsure how they did cook it. The York Press reported that the new premium burger and a can of coke would cost £3.50…… I don’t know how it went, but GNER lost their franchise a few years later, one of the few rail companies who had really focused on the culinary offering.