By The Museum of Science and Technology in Vienna (Technisches Museum Wien) is, like us in the UK, celebrating 200 years of technical and social advances brought about by the railway.
(Photo: Technisches Museum Wien/Klaus Pichler)
Their temporary exhibition Under the Spell of the Railway – 200 Years of Rail Transport, opened in October and uses impressive models, historical objects, and interactive displays, to expose the stories and secrets behind the technological revolution that shaped the modern world. It demonstrates the changes that railways brought to travel habits, to communication, to infrastructure, to freight transport, to consumer behaviour, and to time itself*.
The museum has delved into its extensive collection and is displaying over 50 large-scale railway models in scales from 1:5 to 1:30, some of which are being shown to the public for the first time in decades. Many of the precisely crafted and detailed models — from the steam locomotive pioneer Vindobona to Karl Gölsdorf’s revolutionary express locomotives and the Art Nouveau carriages of the Vienna Stadtbahn — were built over months of manual work using original materials. These 3D archives of engineering, the oldest of which was created in 1843, reveal the enormous transformation of society, politics, and the economy triggered by the world’s first public mass transport system.
The combination of impressive railway models, historical objects from the everyday working life of railway employees, historic photographs & illustrations and interactive displays, follow the development of passenger & freight transport from the steam railway to the modern high-speed train.
There’s also a digital interactive installation, created in cooperation with ÖBB Austrian Railways, that allows visitors to take a deep dive into the history of the railway. Before their eyes, the historical rail network comes to life. Users can follow the development of the railway and see how it reshaped the geography of Austria. Interactive maps show the evolution from the first horse-drawn railways of the Habsburg monarchy to major tunnel projects of the future — a multimedia journey from 1827 to 2040 combining facts, images, and videos.
The Under the Spell of the Railway – 200 Years of Rail Transport exhibition runs at the Vienna Museum of Science and Technology to 2nd August 2026.
* The introduction of railway timetables in the 19th century not only revolutionised timekeeping but also laid the foundation for modern time zones and still sets the rhythm of modern life today.
