Life-size objects…
While some rolling stock continued to moult under wraps in the workshops of SNCF, other objects were already being shown to an admiring public. That was so of the Aigle, which was presented in December 1969 at the Children’s Fair in Le Bourget. The locomotive from 1846 was placed at the centre of the aisles between games, toys and booths dedicated to learning, and was a huge success. A few days before the Christmas holidays, it brought magic to young and old alike. Making La Vie du Rail ask this question: “Are the railways the best toy in the world?”
… and miniatures
The oldest locomotive conserved in Europe is also remarkable in this regard. Many still remember the Buddicom transistor set offered by La Vie du Rail that very same year. In plastic with steel innards, this object, which we would now call “merchandise”, paid tribute to the future star of the French Railways Museum. The advertisement even reassured the public that “it will not mar the decoration of your home”.
Founding of the Rail Miniature Club Alsace Sud (RAMCAS)
HO, N, 0, 1, Z, and G, the railways would be nothing without miniatures. Making these calls for a variety of skills: in railways, architecture, landscapes, observation, carpentry, painting, electronics and digitisation. The French Railways Museum could not afford to ignore these representations. The first meeting was in December 1970 at Chez Dondon, the place to be for miniature train lovers.
A group of fanatics met up in the shop, which used to be located in Rue Mercière, and set up the foundation stones of what would become the Rail Miniature Club Alsace Sud. The club, which was known as RAMCAS and was part of the museum, ceaselessly promoted its activity over the decades. In our times, every September, the Models Fair gives an ever wider public a chance to discover the miniature trains that are cleverly placed near their life-size counterparts.
“Textile companies were being wiped out all the time, because they could no longer compete with companies in countries with low labour costs. We knew we had to find some other activities for our region. So why not take part in a new phenomenon that was emerging, which was beginning to be called the “leisure civilisation”?”
Jean-Mathis Horrenberger
in Le Musée Français du Chemin de Fer : une utopie devenue réalité, 1997
Mulhouse
in the 1970’s
The 1970s were a crucial period for the city of Mulhouse, particularly in the areas of society, town planning, architecture and culture. In 1968, the Mulhouse conference had laid down the bases for redefining the cultural and tourist policy of the town. Dialogue between the arts institutions in place, the new cultural scene and the development of infrastructure serving the city came to be seen as factors that would be required to keep it attractive.
The start of work on the autoroute A36 between Beaune and Mulhouse and the opening of a new passenger terminal in Basel-Mulhouse airport in 1970 were part of that drive. Symbolising the meeting between France, Germany and Switzerland the impressive reinforced concrete figure of the Tour de l’Europe, work of the architect and town planner François Spoerry, appeared in the capital of the Upper Rhine département at about the same time. A few kilometres away, work was beginning on the French Railways Museum…
11 March 1971, Municipal library of Mulhouse
The half roundhouse of
the Mulhouse-North depot
From the late 1960s, the architect Pierre-Yves Schoen had begun preparing plans for what would become the final museum in Mulhouse-Dornach in 1976. Between 1971 and 1976, one of the half roundhouses of the Mulhouse-North depot was selected to shelter the temporary exhibition of the French Railways Museum.
Located in a marshalling yard built in 1889, the building, which has now been destroyed, offered the advantage of allowing the easy movement of the first trains in the collection, while displaying them in their “natural environment”. That convenience in terms of display had to address the need for handling visitors.
In an interview he gave to a journalist from L’Alsace on board a Turbotrain in September 1970, Jean-Mathis Horrenberger disclosed some secrets of the railway museum project. After presenting the conditions agreed by SNCF and AMFCF regarding the temporary use of the place, the President said that over 8000 members’ cards had been sent out across the country. Seven months later, in April 1970, building work began. Fencing, a transformer, a ticket office, accesses for museum personnel, connection between the access way and the reception space were some of the stages of work in the months prior to opening to the public.
The grand
opening!
Covers were taken off the locomotives, equipment was dusted, staff employed, signboards put up…
On 12 June 1971, the French Railways Museum in Mulhouse opened its doors to the public, every day from 10 am to 6 pm.
On 3 July, the museum, which would be the biggest of its kind in Europe, was inaugurated officially.
