Pallot Heritage Steam Museum

The Pallot Heritage Steam Museum is a mechanical heritage museum located in Rue De Bechet in the Parish of Trinity on the island of Jersey.

Lyndon Pallot (known as Don) amassed a large collection of Jersey's mechanical, agricultural, and transport heritage, with a view to preserving the artefacts, and eventually exhibiting them. This ambition was realised in 1990, when the Pallot Steam Museum was opened. Items were purchased or acquired on long-term loan, and railway locomotives were brought to Jersey from Great Britain, Belgium, and Alderney. Members of the Pallot family, and other volunteers working with them, also carried out extensive repair and restoration work on most of the exhibits, restoring their original appearance through cosmetic restoration, or (in many cases) restoring items to full working condition.

The L C Pallot Trust was established in 1985 with the object of promoting the permanent preservation of steam engines, farm machinery, vehicles, and other exhibits. Since the death of the museum's founder, the Trust has continued to work according to his original vision. The current trustees are Don Pallot's surviving children.

Shortly after the opening of the museum, the trustees began planning for expansion. On the same site as the original museum buildings they were able to lease a larger and more modern exhibition hall from a property company also owned by the Pallot family. This building now houses the main collection. A Church Pipe organ and Compton Theatre organ were amongst a large collection of musical instruments, farm machinery, motor cars, other road vehicles, and steam locomotives housed in the new premises. Display cases were installed for the demonstration of models and memorabilia. The official opening ceremony of the new premises took place on Liberation Day 2002, when Michael Wilcock, owner of the former Jersey Motor Museum, cut the ceremonial ribbon.

A 4 ft 8 ¹⁄₂ in (1,435 mm) standard gauge railway operates around the perimeter of the museum site. A Victorian style station was re-constructed using surviving elements of Snow Hill railway station, St Helier, and officially opened on Liberation Day 1996 by Senator Dick Shenton. More recently a lean-to shed has been constructed over the main running line, and adjacent to the exhibition hall, to house the standard gauge service train. The railway usually operates on Thursdays when the museum is open, and visitors are able to purchase travel tickets to ride on the train. A ride consists of two circuits of the railway, and the duration of the journey is approximately ten minutes. Passengers are conveyed in two restored Victorian railway carriages, originally built and operated by the North London Railway in England. The two carriages were discovered at Stratford and were transferred to the Pallot museum in 1989 for restoration. Their original wheels had not survived, but were replaced from the Woodham Brothers scrapyard at Barry Docks in Wales.

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