Summer is finally here and the fun starts for all the family at the Kew Bridge Steam Museum with a host of new exhibitions and displays.

Younger visitors especially are in for a treat during the coming holidays, where a great selection of free drop-in family activities are lined up, including a chance to play with an interactive Sewer Robot as well as saving Freddie The Fish. Now is the perfect time to come down and explore what the museum has on offer for family entertainment as it's FREE ENTRY for children fifteen and under.*

Kids can have a go controlling the Sewer Robot, and hunt for the hidden creatures in the sewers, the latest exhibit running in the Water For Life Galley. There is also an 7 foot high interactive model of the Boulton and Watt beam engine, which sets kids the challenge of driving the engine to fill up the reservoir and save Freddie The Fish from dying! For older children and adults the exhibit explains how beam engines work, as well as having a chance to drive it in exactly the same way as the real engine. A DVD of the actual engine will give clues to driving it and failing that a hidden panel will give full instructions.

Also on during this time:

* The Cornish Engine Experience Weekend - July 22 & August 26 - the 90inch, Boulton & Watt and Maudslay beam engines will run and the focus of the weekend will be on the working life of the Victorian pumping station with specialised talks, behind the scenes tours of the original workshops, as well as tower tours. Related activities will help kids get steamed up as well.

* Historic Characters will be inhabiting the museum on August 27 & 28, engaging older families with tales of the Victorian era including; Thomas Wicksteed, consultant engineer to the Grand Junction Waterworks Company whose vision shaped the museum as it is today and Elizabeth Harvey, sister to George Banfield who was killed when the Maudslay engine was undergoing one of its overhauls.

* 'The 90 inch engine - 30 Years Since Restoration' - a new mini-exhibition celebrating thirty years since its restoration. It comprises archive photographs of its restoration, significant moments in its history, and also a look at why it was built in the first place 160 years ago this year! It explains how it enabled the Grand Junction Water Works Company to offer its customers a 'high service' i.e. pump water up beyond the ground floor - it spent a lot of its time supplying parts of West London. The exhibition also includes an excellent computer animation of the engine, helping visitors get a better understanding of how it works.

* 'The Steam Hall Listening Post', new this summer and sponsored by Audioposts Ltd, it will engage visitors about the history of the engines in the Steam Hall and also give a whistle stop account of the development of steam power from the time of Hero of Alexandria through to James Watt!

* Pic-nic garden open
* Free rides on the steam locomotive
* Water For Life Gallery
* Giant beam and rotative engines in steam at the weekends.
* Museum café and shop
* Education facilities and group visits
* Partial wheelchair access and wheelchair accessible toilet
* Car park with extensive parking facilities

July 17, 2006