The Cité du Train (English: ''City of the Train'' or ''Train City''), situated in

Mulhouse Mulhouse (; Alsatian: or , ; ; meaning '' mill house'') is a city of the Haut-Rhin department, in the Grand Est region, eastern France, close to the Swiss and German borders. It is the largest city in Haut-Rhin and second largest in Alsace a ...

, France, is one of the ten largest railway museums in the world. It is the successor to the ''musée français du chemin de fer'' (trans. French national railway museum), the organisation responsible for the conservation of major historical

SNCF The Société nationale des chemins de fer français (; abbreviated as SNCF ; French for "National society of French railroads") is France's national state-owned railway company. Founded in 1938, it operates the country's national rail traffic ...

railway equipment.

History

In 1961, Mulhouse City Council offered land in Dornach to allow the SNCF to present their historical

rolling stock The term rolling stock in the rail transport industry refers to railway vehicles, including both powered and unpowered vehicles: for example, locomotives, freight and passenger cars (or coaches), and non-revenue cars. Passenger vehicles ca ...

, representative of the company's history. In 1971, the first

locomotive A locomotive or engine is a rail transport vehicle that provides the motive power for a train. If a locomotive is capable of carrying a payload, it is usually rather referred to as a multiple unit, motor coach, railcar or power car; the ...

s were provisionally placed in the old

engine shed The motive power depot (MPD) or locomotive depot, or traction maintenance depot (TMD), is the place where locomotives are usually housed, repaired and maintained when not being used. They were originally known as "running sheds", "engine shed ...

, Mulhouse-Nord. A second site nearby was opened to the public in 1983 at which stage the museum received 240,000 visitors a year. As attendance declined, it was decided to transfer the collection to the group ''Culture Espaces'', which was already in charge of the

Cité de l'automobile Musée National de l’Automobile, Collection Schlumpf is an automobile museum located in Mulhouse, France, and built around the Schlumpf Collection of classic automobiles. It has the largest displayed collection of automobiles and contains the lar ...

(French national automobile museum) since 1999. The French national, regional and departmental governments, as well as the City of Mulhouse, financed a renovation at a total cost of 8.6 million

euro The euro ( symbol: €; code: EUR) is the official currency of 19 out of the member states of the European Union (EU). This group of states is known as the eurozone or, officially, the euro area, and includes about 340 million citizens . ...

s. The

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

François Seigneur designed an exhibition display named ''Le siècle d'or du chemin de fer'' (The golden century of railway), tracing historical events from 1860 to 1940, in a new hall nearly 6,000 square metres with 25 additional exhibits, bringing the total number in the museum to 103. In semi-darkness, the visitor may discover several sections of similar technology in

display cabinet A display case (also called showcase, display cabinet, shadow box, or vitrine) is a cabinet with one or often more transparent tempered glass (or plastic, normally acrylic for strength) surfaces, used to display objects for viewing. A displa ...

s, with mannequins that light up as the visitor approaches, including poorer and richer aspects of railway life. In the old renovated building, the emphasis is mostly placed on the instructional aspect of technology, explaining the mechanisms powering steam, diesel and electric locomotives and their development. It is possible to go inside a locomotive to admire its inner workings. Between the two buildings is an outdoor court complete with a restaurant which railway elements throughout as well as a themed rooms to complete the experience. It currently receives 200,000 visitors annually on a site covering 15,000 m² (this compares with the more than 717,000 visitors received annually by Britain's

National Railway Museum The National Railway Museum is a museum in York forming part of the Science Museum Group. The museum tells the story of rail transport in Britain and its impact on society. It is the home of the national collection of historically significant ...

("NRM") on a site in

York York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a ...

that covers more than 85,000 m²; the Cité du Train receives a similar number of visitors as annually attend Britain's much smaller Locomotion Museum in Shildon, Durham, an out-post of the NRM).

References

External links

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City of Mulhouse – Museum Information
{{DEFAULTSORT:Musee Francais Du Chemin De Fer Chemin de Fer National railway museums Museums in Haut-Rhin Buildings and structures in Mulhouse Railway museums in France