Last Saturday I went to the Musée du Train–also known as Train World–in Brussels, Belgium. Here’s a short report. Train World is Belgium’s brand new national railway museum. It’s headquartered in a large, retired, 1887-built station on the north side of Brussels at Schaarbeek. Above. This former passenger station now serves as the main entrance for the museum. Train World opened just a few years ago. It has a very-French National Railway Museum feel. It is very theatrical, with exhibits lit dramatically. There are video displays everywhere, and collections of equipment and paraphernalia all over. Unlike the French museum though, … Continue reading No. 164: Musée du Train, Brussels

Over the recent fourth of July weekend I took my family to Grachen, Switzerland for a week of Alpine hiking. Grachen is a mountain-top village a few miles away from the highest peak in the Swiss Alps, the Matterhorn.  Incredible vistas are everywhere, but you’ve gotta earn them by hiking to the top. Above. One of my daughters a thousand feet above Randa, Switzerland, which we’ll visit later. Below, the fam and I are taking a break from a hard hike up the mountain before crossing the longest pedestrian suspension bridge in the world, about 7,700 feet above Randa. The … Continue reading No. 159: 12:30 to Zermatt

Over Christmas week I took the family skiing in Slovakia.  It was a 13-hour drive from Germany to the Tatras National Park in Slovakia, so we stopped halfway–in Prague, Czech Republic–to enjoy a nice evening at the Prague Christmas markets. My son has been to Prague several times and told me all about the trolleys there.  I’m not much of a trolley fan but I was pleasantly surprised.  We stayed in a cool Air B&B on the east side of the river, overlooking the Charles Bridge, and on the morning of the 24th I got up early and walked to … Continue reading No. 137: Trolleys of Prague, Czech Repulic

Last weekend I drove to Frankfurt to visit the Frankfurt Feldbahn Museum for Modelbautag.  Feldbahn means “Field Railway”, and is a term used to describe German narrow-gauge industrial railroading.  The Feldbahn Museum just west of downtown Frankfurt is the largest operating museum of it’s kind in Europe; they maintain a large stable of equipment and a giant mainline loop in nearby Rebstockpark. Last Sunday was a great day to visit, as this day was also Modelbautag, or Modeler’s Day, at the museum.  I expected a train show with vendors and models but there were only a few modular layouts and a … Continue reading No. 123: Modelbautag at the Feldbahn Museum, Frankfurt

Two weekends ago I made the long drive down to Mulhouse, France to visit Cité du Train, the French National Railway Museum.  This museum presents the history and technological achievements of the French railway network, particularly the SNCF–the Société Nationale des Chemins de Fer–which, since 1938, is France’s national state-owned railway company. Don’t laugh.  I had read a lot about the museum and understood it was one of the very best in the world.  I expected it to be good, but I didn’t expect it to be that good. The museum occupies a huge area on the south side of … Continue reading No. 122: Cité du Train – The French National Railway Museum

Back in the early 1990s I was a young Air Force navigator flying C-141s out of Charleston AFB.  One of our usual runs was to Rhine-Main AB in Frankfurt, Germany.  I flew there often.  Sometimes we’d get a day off between missions so we’d go downtown and see the sights.  We would often rent a car and drive up the Rhine River valley between Rudesheim and Koblenz to visit the little towns, and shop, and see all the castles, and experience the very best of Germany.  We always stopped in Rudesheim as a joke, because Rudesheim was where we would have to hold if Frankfurt/Rhine-Main couldn’t get us … Continue reading No. 119: Railfan Day on the Rhine

On Friday I took my family on a long Labor Day weekend trip to the Ticino region of Switzerland, close to the Italian border, for a weekend of hiking and swimming.  On the way we stopped in Lucerne, which is about a 90-minute drive south of the Germany-Switzerland border at Berne, and visited the Switzerland Transportation Museum. The Swiss Transportation Museum is small but breathtaking.  As you can imagine it is clean and perfectly organized.  The museum devotes a separate building to automobiles, trains, airplanes and shipping, and has a lot more going on, like a planetarium and a chocolate museum, … Continue reading No. 99: The Swiss National Railway Musuem

I spent way too much time in June and July doing this… …and not enough time finishing up models for St. Louis RPM. However, summer is a great time to travel in Europe, and a couple of weeks before St. Louis RPM I visited the big Deutsche Bahn Museum in Koblenz, which is about an hour north of where I live.  Koblenz lies at the confluence of the Rhine and the Moselle Rivers and has always been a major transportation center.  The Deutsche Bahn, or “DB” for short, runs along both sides of the Rhine River here.  A large, retired shop complex … Continue reading No. 96: Deutsche Bahn Museum, Koblenz

Prototype modelers are always in need of motivation.  I spent a week on vacation in Slovenia in June, and during that time I broke away from the family for a few hours and visited the Slovenian National Railway Museum in the capital of Ljubljana.   To my great surprise it was—hands down—one of the most awesome museums I’ve ever been to.  It was full of motivation and a few surprises too. The photo above is the view you get as you enter the museum grounds.  The roundhouse and exhibits are is excellent shape.  There are steam engines–many of which still … Continue reading No. 93: Slovenia National Railway Museum