Next to Gara de Nord · Bucharest · since 1939
Fourteen metres of diorama that runs by itself, heritage locomotives in the courtyard, and the desk of the engineer who built the Cernavodă bridge.
Four rooms and a courtyard
From the first mine wagons of Transylvania to the diesel railcars built in Bucharest in the 1930s.
The star of the museum, and the reason children refuse to leave. Night trains, narrow-gauge steamers and freight trains set off on their own and run through miniature mountains, tunnels, viaducts and stations.
You reach it through a short tunnel. Inside stands the engineer's working desk, a national heritage object, with the model of the Cernavodă bridge sitting on it, alongside his inkwell, spectacles and drawing instruments.
Locomotives and carriages built in the workshop during the 1950s and '60s at 1:20 scale, then fully restored. The star is the „Pacific" class 231, the locomotive that reached 126 kilometres per hour.
You see them before you even go in, because the entrance runs through the courtyard: „Călugăreni" of 1869 and a narrow-gauge engine, out in the open, a few steps from the ticket desk.
1924 → today
The idea of a railway museum appeared in 1924, proposed by inspector general Theodor Balș, and on 10 June 1939 the „Railwaymen's Museum" opened beneath the stands of the Giulești stadium. Since 1 May 1953 the collection has lived in the railway building on Calea Griviței, next to Gara de Nord, where it remains today. It was refurbished in 1969 for the centenary of Romania's first line, and reopened to the public on 16 May 2012 together with the diorama.
Today it is run by CENAFER as the Public Collection of Romanian Railway History. Its holdings include 37 steam locomotives, kept in depots across the country, fifteen of them classified as national treasure.
The museum's timetable
Last entry at 15:45. During the European Night of Museums the museum stays open late and entry is free.
Railway Museum · admission
Adults
10lei · cash
Railway Museum · admission
Pupils, students, pensioners
2.50lei · cash
Surcharge at the desk
Photography
40lei per hour
Surcharge at the desk
Filming
70lei per hour
Payment is cash only, in Romanian lei, at the desk; ten lei is roughly two euros. Beware of outdated prices of 4 and 2 lei that still circulate online: the rates above are the ones published by CENAFER. Confirm before your visit on +40 31 620 3902.
For pre-school children, groups, and any free-admission categories, call +40 31 620 3902: the museum does not publish these, and we do not invent them.
193B Calea Griviței
The museum sits right beside Gara de Nord, Bucharest's main station, but the entrance is not through the station. You come in from Calea Griviței, through the courtyard where the locomotives stand.
Map: OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL · open in Google Maps
The entrance is at 193B Calea Griviței, through the inner courtyard where the steam locomotives are displayed. The historic entrance from platform 14 of Gara de Nord is closed at present, although many online guides still point to it.
1939 - 1953
The first railway museum opened in 1939, beneath the stands of the Giulești stadium. In the spring of 1944, Allied bombing struck the marshalling yards beside Gara de Nord and destroyed most of the collection. What survived stayed in storage until 1953.
The Saligny Room and beyond
1854-1925
He was given the Cernavodă bridge at the age of 35. During load testing he sat in a boat beneath it, staking his life on its strength.
1853-1931
Some 650 kilometres of railway and around 60 station buildings, among them Curtea de Argeș and Comănești.
1881-1965
He created the theory of sonics and the first torque converter for locomotives. 317 patents.
1884-1965
He started with a repair workshop in 1921 and ended up running the most productive rolling-stock works in Europe.
In short
The line is clear
