Egypt's Railway Museum inaugurated after major renovation - Museums - Heritage - Ahram Online

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Egypt's Railway Museum inaugurated after major renovation

The Egyptian National Railways Museum re-opens its doors to visitors in the heart of Cairo

Nevine El-Aref , Thursday 3 Mar 2016

The train section (courtesy of Hussein Al-Shabouri)

The renovated Egyptian Railway Museum was inaugurated on Tuesday after the completion of a modernisation project at the cost of EGP 10 million.

The event was attended by a number of ministers and government officials, including Minister of Transportation Saeed Al-Geyoushi, Cairo Governor Galal Al-Saeed, and Minister of Tourism Hisham Zaazou.

The Railway Museum, which is located in the Ramsis Square Railway station in downtown Cairo, was founded in 1933 to celebrate the International Railway Conference held in Cairo that year.

It was the first of its kind in the Middle East and the second national railway museum after the British Railway Museum.

The Egyptian railway system, which started in 1854, is one of the oldest in the world.

The museum is a two-storey building displaying more than 700 kinds of train models in addition to a collection of statistical documents and maps that demonstrate the development of transportation in Egypt over the decades.

During the official opening, Al-Geyoushi announced that all museum visitors could enter free for seven days, and that discounts would be offered to students and researchers all year long.

old add for train (Courtesy of Hussein El-Shabouri)

The museum consists of five sections covering the history of railways.

The first section is transportation before steam engines, including means of transport in ancient Egypt. The section features Model boats and horse-drawn chariots and wagons that pharaohs used in everyday life and in wars.

The second section is dedicated to the development of rail wagons to modern trains. 

A bridges section contains models of all railway bridges in Egypt, and features paintings and pictures depicting the bridges and their design. 

The airplane section gives a brief history of the development of airplanes from the Wright brothers till today.

The second floor of the museum (courtesy of Hussein Al-Shabouri)