A MAJOR new exhibition is to be staged at York's National Railway Museum about the world’s longest and most famous rail journey – the Trans-Siberian Railway.

Produced in partnership with JSC Russian Railways, the exhibition, which opens on March 26 next year, will showcase priceless artefacts from Russia and the UK, brought together for the first time.

A spokesman said these included a famous Fabergé Easter Egg ‘The Great Siberian Railway,' model carriages of a luxurious Siberian Express, a model of the Newcastle-built ‘Baikal’ icebreaker and unique archival documents and drawings.

"Called Trans-Siberian: The World’s Longest Railway, the exhibition will tell the engineering, social and cultural stories of the world’s longest railway line which at 5,772 miles, runs from Moscow to Vladivostok, crossing continents and connecting East to West," he said.

"Begun in 1891 and fully completed in 1916, a journey along the length of the Trans-Siberian would cross seven time zones, lasting up to seven days."

NRM director Judith McNicol said: "This exhibition – a true blockbuster – will celebrate and inspire in equal measure, bringing together exquisite treasures from Russia and the colossal engineering feats that allowed travellers to cross a continent by railway. It is absolutely not to be missed.”