The collection contains the internal records of the British Transport Commission (BTC)'s Museum of British Transport, as well as the Consultative Panel for the Preservation of British Transport. The material documents the acquisition and preservation of the museum's collections, and the museum's activities in the form of exhibitions, dealings with enquirers and publicity.

The years following Clapham's opening were the beginning of a long period of substantial growth in the museum sector and the collection documents the involvement of the Museum of British Transport and John Scholes, its curator, in assisting with the founding of several other inland transport museums across the country. The founding and management of the York Railway Museum (formerly known as the London & North Eastern Railway Museum) and the Museum of the Great Western Railway in Swindon are documented in the collection, both of which came under the aegis of the BTC and the Museum of British Transport. The museum's closure, transfer of management to the Science Museum under the Department of Education and Science, and the subsequent dispersal of its collections, including the move of the railway collections to the new National Railway Museum in York, is also well represented.