It’s all change at Kew Bridge Steam Museum this month with the arrival of a new Director at the helm. Lesley Bossine, who has been in charge since 1986 has stepped down to allow new arrival, Ernest Buchner, who comes to the museum from Canada where he was Executive Director of Heritage Toronto, that City's municipal heritage agency, to take the driving seat.

Although Ernest has spent the past seven years working to preserve more of Toronto's heritage buildings, overseeing the installation of historical markers and plaques, providing various heritage based public programs and raising money in support of this work, he returns to his first love, museums with his move to Kew Bridge.

Having seen Heritage Toronto reach all of the objectives he had set for it and himself, he has arrived in London, with his wife Elizabeth, to help Kew Bridge Steam Museum move forward on many fronts and, as he says: "to help it be all that it can be and that is quite stupendous.

He continues: “Kew Bridge Steam Museum has almost everything it needs to move beyond being the pinnicle for steam enthusiasts as it is now into being part of the everyday life of every family in West London. My job is to identify and bring home those things that are needed to move it forward and I am looking forward to the challenges and opportunities ahead."

Lesley Bossine said: “I first visited the museum in 1985 and was totally bowled over by it. Until then I had always thought a steam engine was a train and had no idea that places such as Kew Bridge existed. I signed up straightway as a volunteer, intent on doing something practical, and found myself scraping rust off the Maudslay engine and painting bits under the floor...where the tide came in!

Whilst painting up a ladder about six months later, the then General Manager asked me if I could help out on the staff for one month. One month became six and then the museum took over the rest of the site from Thames Water and I was offered a permanent job focussing on developing the museum. Twenty-one years later I feel it is time to move on, despite the fact that I have thoroughly enjoyed my time with the museum. Running an independent museum with no income other than what you can raise yourself has been both a delight and a challenge and it would have been impossible without the support and enthusiasm of the museum's dedicated band of volunteers and staff. Out of the many marvellous memories I have, achieving our first lottery award and winning the Classic category in the 2006 Museums and Heritage Awards rank amongst the best. I wish Ernest every success in taking the museum on to evener higher heights.”