Going Loco in Utrecht’s Train Museum
All aboard, as Tomas Mowlam experiences the delights of the grand age of steam trains at Utrecht’s Spoorwegmuseum.
The Spoorwegmuseum is an immersion into the world of trains from the very start, as you enter through the restored 19th Century Maliebaan station, and buy your entrance tickets at the old ticket booth.
The first ‘land’, The Great Discovery takes you back to 1800, to the coal mines and the birth of steam engines in 1829 with George Stevenson’s Rocket. There’s even a replica of the very first steam train in the Netherland’s the Arend.
The second ‘land’, Dream Journeys takes you onboard the Orient Express, the luxurious train route that whisked the great and the good of 19th Century Europe from Paris to Constantinople.
Steel Monsters is the third land, and takes you into amongst the smoke, dust and dirt of the railway yards. It also takes you into the lives of the men who worked with the trains, like the Gommers family, who for three generations worked the Dutch rail yards as signalman, pointsman, engine driver and chief engineer.
Finally in the workshops you can see how the trains were built, and marvel at the restored locomotives. The EduTRAINERS [terrible I know] are on hand to explain things to the kids, with interesting and informative displays and talks about the engineering behind the trains.
A Royal Exhibition
From 15 April the museum will hold Royal Class, Regal Journeys, an exhibition which promises to recreate the grandeur in which European royalty travelled, with carriages that once belonged to King Louis II of Bavaria, Tsar Alexander II, Franz Ferdinand, Carl Gustav of Sweden and King Albert I of Belgium amongst others.
I’m far from a fan of trains (they’re normally late and uncomfortable) but something about the lovingly restored metal monsters was breathtaking.
Getting There
The museum is open Mondays during the school holidays, rest of the year open Tuesdays to Sundays 10.00am to 5.00pm. Parking is limited to 200 vehicles but a shuttle train runs between Utrecht CS and the Railway Museum. Check it out at spoorwegmuseum.nl
Image Credit: Marcin Wichary
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