There’s a new train museum on the outskirts of Brussels.

Train World opened late September after ten years of work and an investment of 25 million euros, and is already drawing much praise and attention for the way it tells the ‘story’ of Belgian (& European) rail travel.

The Belgian rail company, SNCB, who are behind the project did two clever things.

They chose the historic Schaerbeek Station, as a location for the museum. Schaerbeek is an architectural jewel and one of the oldest stations in the country, constructed on the first rail track of the continent linking Brussels and Mechelen.

They hired the Belgian comic artist François Schuiten, to tell the story in a multisensory and theatrical way. Much of his style and mood comes from the staging of spaces and objects under an exclusive lighting layout created by the Canadian architectural lighting experts, Lightemotion.

You can see from their photos, the dramatic effect!

The museum’s new 86,000 sq ft industrial hangar at the station contains 4 exhibition halls where you can admire several locomotives, including the Pays de Waes, the oldest preserved steam locomotive in Europe, carriages, buildings and a thousand objects related to the railway world, drawings and models.

It is definitely on my ‘hit list’ for a visit!

(Photos: Marie-Francoise Plissart via v2.com)