A MUSEUM shortlisted for the country's largest single arts prize faces a tense wait for the result after showing round the final two members of a judging panel.

Locomotion: The National Railway Museum, at Shildon, County Durham, is one of four candidates for the £100,000 Gulbenkian Prize for Museum of the Year, to be announced on May 26.

Judges' chairman Sir Richard Sykes, rector of Imperial College London, and Sir Neil Chalmers, a former director of the Natural History Museum, were the last of seven panel members to tour the £11m centre.

Locomotion, which opened last summer, houses 70 vehicles from the national rail collection and has become a centre for community activities and training.

It has exceeded visitor targets, with enthusiasts from all over the world enjoying a close-up view of exhibits including the Flying Scotsman.

Other prize contenders are the Time and Tide Museum, Great Yarmouth, the National Mining Mus-eum of Wales and the Cov-entry Transport Museum.

Sir Richard said: "In telling the stories of working people up and down the land, the Gulbenkian finalists have helped us understand and take pride in our own histories.

"Museums that tell these stories well have created a new audience of museum-goers and have turned the stereotype of an exclusive, quiet and intimidating museum on its head."

Locomotion manager George Muirhead said: "We have done everything we possibly can, and it will be a tense wait for the result."

Support for Locomotion can be registered on www. thegulbenkianprize.org.uk

Published: 09/05/2005