A rare opportunity exists for rail supporters to see a collection of 100 works of art inspired by the railway.

The Liverpool exhibition includes paintings, drawings, prints and photographs and “captures the excitement of the steam train in art from the earliest days”, to the 1960s.

Art in the Age of Steam “celebrates the power and impact of the railway on artists” and is a highlight of Liverpool’s European Capital of Culture year.

There are works by Frith, Manet, Monet, Van Gogh and Hopper, great names from both Europe and North America.

The four-month long free-entry exhibition at the Walker Art Gallery is the only European showing of the exhibition, which is organised in collaboration with The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City.

It includes:

The Railway by Edouard Manet, from the National Gallery of Art, Washington.

La Crau from Montmajour, with train by Van Gogh from the British Museum, London.

Lordship Lane Station by Camille Pissarro from the Courtauld Institute of Art, London.

Four paintings by Claude Monet, including Gare Saint-Lazare from the National Gallery, London.

Railroad Train by Edward Hopper from the Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts.

The Anxious Journey by Giorgio de Chirico from the Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Photographs by Bill Brandt, Alfred Stieglitz and O Winston Link.

Curator Julian Treuherz commented: “Aboard these great machines, passengers travelled at faster speeds than ever before and notions of time and space were forever changed.”

Mr Treuherz, co-curator and former keeper of galleries at the Walker Art Gallery added: “Nothing has been done on this scale before – visitors are transported on an exhilarating journey in the company of some of the world’s great artists.”

The exhibition opened in April and continues until Sunday 10 August 2008. It goes to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art from 13 September 2008 to 18 January 2009.

The Walker is open from 10am to 5pm every day and is a short walk from Liverpool Lime Street main line station.

It is also possible to use Liverpool Lime Street low level, Moorfields station or Liverpool Central.

More info: liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/walker/exhibitions/steam

Daily Telegraph review: telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2008/04/22/basteam122.xml