Train World (Belgium)

On december 29, 2016, the Railway Heritage World traveled to Brussels, where we could visit a huge railway museum!

The History

The Belgium train history started after the country got its independence from Netherlands. It was the first country in the European continent to have a public railway, which was the way found to replace the international connections closed by Netherlands. In May 5, 1835, the first railway was inaugurated between Brussels and Mechelen. The Schaerbeek station is part of this branch, thus it is one of the oldest stations in Belgium. Its building was constructed in two parts, first one in 1887 and the second one in 1913, both of them in the Art Nouveau style. The station was totally rebuilt and preserves a huge railway memory inside of it.

The Train World museum uses these two old buildings and a new industrial hangar to keep and exhibit the tangible and intangible railway heritage. Besides the huge windows made to connect the museum to the city and the tracks, the new project do not seem to have the intention of competing with the other buildings, because its shape does not maintain an monumental concept. As a matter of fact, we didn't even noticed it until we went to the back of the old station to continue the visit. There is a gap between the old station and the industrial hangar, and beside it, there are many buildings, so its front façade was a bit hidden from our first look. This year the museum celebrated its first birthday!

The Building and the Exhibition

Well, after four hours in the museum it is very difficult to chose a way to start this review. We could buy the tickets in the first station, in the same place were they used to sell the train tickets. Before arriving to the second building we passed by a restaurant and we found out about an phone application that we could get using the museum internet for free. This application is an audio guide, which made our visit more dinamic. For those who doesn't have iPhone or Android, the museum offers for 2 euros an audio guide.

In some minutes we reached the big hall! This first part tells about the place itself, about other railway stations around the world and about some trains. They use virtual tools like videos and modals. Even the workers' clothes and the offices behind the balconies are preserved s it used to be. In this day, they had an exhibition about Tintin and the train. That was really impressive, because they linked the Tintin's adventures to the train history.

After that we went out of the old station and along the old backyard we saw the first Belgium train, some mechanical components and other equipments for loading and unloading. This way took us to the third building.

Inside it, another surprise. The building infrastructure is completly hidden, the lighs focus the trains and its elements. They use many screenings of the railway expantion in Belgium and around Europe. People can get in some trains and play with it. It is a very interactive museum, what call the attention of childrens and grow-ups. They try to highlight each technical detail of the infrastructure, the machine and even the workers memory. Yes, they have interviews and a reconstruction of the old workers house, when they used to live beside the railway.

The whole museum is a scenography spectacle, they rebuilt many vagons, including its inside. When we thought that the range of information was ending, we crossed a room where they talk about bridges and tunnels, exhibiting models of them and the machines used to make them. Next to the end of the tour they start to speak about the new technologies and, one more time, you can interect with their modals. There are two trains with virtual simulation, so you can try to become a train driver.

In the end of the tour, as usual, there is a shop with many kind of souvenirs, books and games.

The Railway and the City

The railway tracks used by this train station are still being used. In front of the building there is a tramway station and under the railway tracks there is a metro station, thus, the museum is located in the center of an intermodal system. This new use of the train station had high costs and a lot of work. As said before, the new industrial hangar try to connects its inside to the city by big windows. Besides that, the museum rent a space for events.

Final Considerations

This recover and reuse of the old Schaerbeek train station required a huge investment and work. Its way of exhibition is appropriated to the new kind of popular demand. The audio guide has one hour and a half of information, but to really see everything, we need more time. It is a lot of information for just one visite. The museum intends to receive many visitors, and like that, improve the tourism and economy of its region. Make a part of an intermodal landscape seems to put the railway memory in its right context. Besides that, the museum group have a chance to receive sponsors and colaboration to organize and diffuse a big data base about railway heritage.

If you want to know more about this world, go to http://trainworld.be/en.