Description of the attraction
The Central Museum of Railway Transport of the Russian Federation is a technical museum in St. Petersburg. Dedicated to railways, rolling stock and everything connected with it. The museum was founded in 1813.
Currently, the museum's exposition is located in 11 halls with an area of about 1200 square meters, in a building erected specifically for the museum in 1902 by the idea of the architect Pyotr Stanislavovich Kupinsky. The exposition is divided by themes, built in chronological order; excursionists get acquainted with the formation and development of the railway industry from the formation of railways to the present.
In the first hall "The Origin of Railways" there is a model (scale 1: 2) of the first Russian steam locomotive, created by the father and son Efim Alekseevich and Miron Efimovich Cherepanov in 1833-1834, models of early locomotives from England: the Brunton steam locomotive of 1813 and the Raketa steam locomotive "Stephenson in 1829. The exposition contains a plaster bust of Professor F. A. Gerstner, who supervised the construction of the first Russian railway in 1837, and other exhibits.
The second hall tells about the first transport university in our country. The exhibition features a portrait of A. A. Betancourt - I rector of the Institute of the Corps of Railway Engineers, photographs of the I building of the institute and the building of 1823, photographs of lesson plans, classrooms, pupils, etc.
The exposition of hall No. 3 shows the construction of railways in the second half of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries: the Catherine railway, Murmansk, Bendero-Galatskaya, and Trans-Siberian railways. There is an extensive collection of models of railway bridges. For example, the models of the bridge over the ravine and the Verebe river and the bridge over the Msta river are very interesting.
The fourth hall tells about the development of the Russian steam locomotive and car building industry. The central place in the exposition is given to models of steam locomotives and carriages, unique photographs. For example, here you can see a model of a 0-3-0 type D-series steam locomotive, made in the middle of the 19th century. Also, the exposition widely demonstrates the domestic car building of the pre-revolutionary period. The visitor has the opportunity to get acquainted with a model of a class IV passenger carriage for the poor class, models of freight cars, etc.
No less interesting are the genuine communication devices that operated on the first railways of our country. They are displayed in the fifth room. Shown here are Siemens lancet telegraph sets, which were used in the early years of the operation of the Petersburg-Moscow railway. In the middle of the 19th century, they were replaced by more modern Morse telegraphs, and by the end of the century, railways were equipped with baton devices. Also in the exposition, visitors will see a model of mechanical centralization of Max-Yudel.
In the sixth room there are exhibits dedicated to the construction of railways in the pre-war period: from 1926 to 1940, and the work of transport during the Second World War: a diorama of the destroyed station of the artist S. P. Svetlitsky, models of armored trains of the Civil and Second World Wars and others.
Halls 7-11 widely demonstrate operating models and equipment dedicated to the development of scientific and technological progress in railway transport from the 20s of the XX century to our time. There are models of road and construction machines: excavator, trencher, compacting machine UM and track-laying machine UK-25. Also clearly shown are the techniques and devices that are used in transport to detect breaks, cracks, aging in rails.
In the exposition about the construction of the Baikal-Amur Mainline, in addition to photographic documents, one can see genuine objects: a surveyor's cloak, a saddle for a horse, a measuring tape, a picket book, etc. In addition, a part of the carriage for passengers in full size is displayed in the hall. Such cars, with 2-seater compartments and a shower room, were produced in 1957 at the Yegorov Leningrad plant.
Not all of the materials in the museum can be displayed in the permanent exhibition. That is why the museum constantly organizes exhibitions from the funds, telling about the anniversary dates of roads, enterprises, personal exhibitions of inventors and scientists. Museum staff are constantly in scientific research and work to improve the exposition.
