iNational Technical MuseumLetná
What Made The Railways, What the Railways Made
The story of modern rail transport as an engine of global change, told through authentic exhibits, interactive elements and artworks.
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One of the first things you pass is a pragotron, the flap departure board that hung in Beroun station for decades, and it still works. Curator Adam Horký put newer pieces in to show the railway is still alive.
Beyond it, the museum's largest temporary hall has platforms and a waiting room. The story starts before steam, with rails in mines, and runs to the end of the golden age after the First World War. You walk past an almost 200-year-old British steam engine, a 5.5-tonne locomotive wheelset and a statue of Austria from Těšnov station, demolished in 1985. The opening panel credits the railway with a world timed to the second, so you know whom to blame as you sprint for the 22.
It suits railfans, but there is plenty to operate: Morse code, a Gooch valve gear model, a kids' corner, and the real signal box from Trhový Štěpánov, wired to a dispatcher simulation. It's in the main building at Letná until 7 February 2027.
Look for
The Beroun pragotron
Look near the entrance for the electromechanical flap departure board that served Beroun station for decades; it still works.
The Trhový Štěpánov signal box
The lever frame that ran this station for almost 50 years is now linked to a computer simulation, so you can take a turn as dispatcher.
The statue of Austria
A figure that once decorated Praha-Těšnov station, opened in 1875 and demolished in 1985, lent from the Prague City Museum's store.
The 5.5-tonne wheelset
A real locomotive wheelset, two wheels on their axle, among the authentic exhibits at the core of the show.
The platforms and waiting room
The section on carriages and rail travel is built as station platforms and a waiting room, with original objects set into them.
Good for
- Nerding Out
- Small Kids
- Teenagers
With kids
There's a play corner for children, plus Morse code, old telephones and a steam engine kids can set moving. The TourStories app adds a quiz for older kids.
Also at National Technical Museum
On now nearby
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Image credits
8
- What Made The Railways, What the Railways MadeCourtesy of National Technical Museum
- Radka Bodzewicz: FAUSTCourtesy of DOX Centre for Contemporary Art
- Květa Kovářová – For the Shape of the FigureCourtesy of Museum Kampa
- National Technical MuseumToklick / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
- National Gallery Prague – Convent of St Agnes of BohemiaVitVit, CC BY-SA 4.0
- National Gallery Prague – Trade Fair PalaceŠJů / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0
- Jewish Museum in PragueFeťour / Wikimedia Commons, CC0
- Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague (UPM)Kirgyt12 - Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0