Experience the world of railways in the 1900s via the Deutsches Technikmuseum’s model trains.
Sunan: German Museum of Technology
Which is the original and which a model? The Deutsches Technikmuseum’s historical large-scale models make it hard to tell the difference.
Every sign, every rivet, every washbasin has been recreated true to the original in every detail. Many of the components are completely functional.
But where do such models come from? Who made them? And why?
The models date back to around 1900. Horse-drawn carriages may still have dominated the streetscape, but the railroad was by no means new. It shaped people’s everyday lives as the No. 1 modern means of mass transportation.
The railway models were previously part of the collection of the Transport and Building Museum located in the old “Hamburger Bahnhof” train station in Berlin.
The Transport and Building Museum opened in 1906. As a flagship museum of the German Empire, it served as a national display of technological progress.
The high-tech railways and hydraulic engineering of that time were on display. The museum also served as a technological education platform. The students at the nearby Technical University in Berlin-Charlottenburg, for example, benefitted greatly.
A large part of the collection was lost during the Second World War. The museum was closed during the war in 1943. It remained inaccessible to the public for decades – until 1984.
Today’s Deutsches Technikmuseum acquired the majority of the remaining collection of the former Transport and Building Museum in 1984. The approximately 50 large 1:5 scale railway models have been on display ever since.
The models’ level of detail is truly amazing; many of the components are even made with the original materials.
The thematic diversity of the models is also remarkable. They show the entire spectrum of railways in Germany around the 1900s, even including such aspects as what everyday trips in 3rd and 4th class coaches were like.
The collection also contains objects like this, which from today’s perspective seems quite curious.
A coach for transporting corpses by rail.
Special vehicles such as this revolving rail crane are also part of the collection.
The diversity of the models and their accuracy of detail were not just the result of hobbyism, but served practical purposes as well.
The railway industry sponsored the making of such models for advertising and demonstration purposes. They were, for example, displayed at international expositions.
Once they were no longer needed for exhibitions, many companies donated the models to the Transport and Building Museum.
Other models, particularly the locomotives, were made by State Railway workshops. They served as teaching aids for training purposes.
The trainees themselves made these models and in doing so learned the crafts and technologies of the railway industry.
Scant few of the original railway vehicles from this period have survived to this day. Most of them were reprocessed or simply scrapped.
Many of these model trains are thus the last preserved exemplifications of the originals themselves. They are able to convey what travel on the railway may have been like over 100 years ago. Next stop: 1900!