One hundred paintings inspired by the age of the steam locomotive have been gathered together at Liverpool's Walker Art Gallery for a major new exhibition that opens on Friday and runs until August 10. The paintings, from some of the world's greatest art collections, show how artists captured the excitement of the steam train from earliest times until they ceased operating in the 1960s.

Among the paintings in the exhibit are:

• The Railway by Edouard Manet, from the National Gallery of Art, Washington
• Railroad Train by Edward Hopper from Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts
• Gare Saint-Lazare and three other paintings by Claude Monet, loaned by the National Gallery, London
• The Anxious Journey by Giorgio de Chirico, loaned by the Museum of Modern Art, New York

as well as paintings by Van Gogh and Pissarro and photographs by Bill Brandt and Alfred Stieglitz.

So not a show just for the trains spotters then. And it's free.

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• Find out more about Liverpool, the European Capital of Culture 2008