Two centuries of Russian railway history

Abstract

The history of the creation of one of the oldest scientifi c and technical museums in the world — the Central Museum of Railway Transport, which is 210 years old — is considered.The Central Museum of Railway Transport collection began with models made under the leadership of Augustine de Betancourt, the founder and first inspector (rector) of the Institute of the Corps of Railway Engineers, chief director of railways, and the founder of engineering in Russia. These include models of spiers used in the construction of St. Isaac’s Cathedral in St. Petersburg, the Manege in Moscow, the pontoon of a floating bridge across the Oka River in Nizhny Novgorod, etc. This is the only collection that has survived in the world to this day, reflecting the developments of an outstanding scientist. Using the museum’s stock materials, one can trace all the main stages of the development of railway transport in Russia: from the opening in 1837 of the Tsarskoye Selo Railway, the first public railway in Russia, to the achievements of modern railway transport. Today, the Center for Railway Transport of the Russian Federation is the only state museum of the industry. The museum’s collections contain more than 70 thousand items refl ecting the history of the development of Russian railways over the entire period of their existence. The large-scale exhibition “Gallery of the Heads of the Department of Railways for 225 Years” is dedicated to the festive date, which displays the only collection of portraits in Russia of all the heads of the Department of Transport.