Art comes to the
Railways Museum
While the museum is a conservatory for rolling stock, it also aimed at preserving artistic representations of the railways. Even before the opening ceremony of June 1971, the museum took part in the Scheffer Prize, the 25th railways painting exhibition organised at the SIM. Less than a year later, with the support of the City of Mulhouse, the organisation purchased the collection of Charles Dollfus, an aviator who wrote much on the railways and possessed a rare series of decorative objects. At the same time, the painter Albert Brenet set up his easel before the Parthenay. This prolific artist, who had been commissioned by SNCF, put gouache onto the canvas for a preparatory sketch of the iconic poster of the French Railways Museum.
“Do you know
the French Railways Museum”
From the first years of the museum, its founders saw the need for publicising their establishment widely. Several thousand leaflets printed by L’Alsace on “90g cream-coloured coated paper” were handed out. But advertising had to be agreed by all, and the costs shared. On 25 November 1971, a meeting was organised to address the “coordination of propaganda between the different museums of Mulhouse”. The aim was to promote the cultural and tourist heritage of Mulhouse over a 150-km radius. A few months later, the counters of hotels, restaurants and tourist offices proudly bore brochures telling of the French Railways Museum, the Historical Museum, the Church of Saint-Stephen, the Fabric Printing Museum and the Zoo. But the efforts went further, and a need was felt to organise circuits between these major tourist sights. Coaches were supported by city buses. The employees were asked to promote the museum to day visitors and regular users alike. Because, in spite of the many advertising inserts and articles, word-of-mouth was still the best channel. However, glowing verbal recommendations may have been put in the shade by a legendary postcard, which was able to fit a train, a town hall, a bear, a period room and the whole essence of l’Alsace into 150 cm².
A locomotive
as the sign
The leaflet, brochure, poster and postcard were not the only materials used. There was also the locomotive sign! In order to draw visitors to the museum from rue Josué Hofer, the Board of Directors rapidly approved the project of using scrapped equipment that was to be demolished as a life-size sign for the museum. In September 1972, Jean-Mathis Horrenberger thus informed André Portefaix, Chief Engineer, Traction and Equipment, of SNCF, of Michel Doerr’s wish to buy the 130 B 348, stabled in the Chaumont depot. The locomotive was described by the Chairman as having an “extremely characteristic figure”. The other advantage was that it weighed “only 48,500 kg”. Ultimately, the 030 TB 2 from the Arles workshop was selected. After its cabin and water tanks had been removed, this absurd machine left Provence for Romilly to be repainted. At the same time, Thouars offered to reconstruct the chimney. But the object alone could not be seen from the road. So it was given a plinth. On 1 April 1974, the makeshift loco left Romilly for Mulhouse. A few weeks later, the phone rang at 93 Avenue de Lutterbach, former headquarters of the lifting company Koenig. They were asked to lift the machine onto its narrow ballast. The operation, which the contractor described as “delicate”, was covered by La Vie du Rail, which applauded this “spectacular piece of handling”. A true little saga inside the wider story of the Museum, this episode gives an insight into how the establishment operated: an idea, partnerships between regions and in the end, children clambering on for a photo, even if that was not allowed!
A passion for postcards
The postcards that were displayed on the cork board at the ticket office feature in the early minutes of the meetings of the board as “ancillary revenue’. By 1974, a sale kiosk was set up and they became a valuable source of additional revenue. A study of correspondence between 1971 and 1976 shows that the public were particularly keen on postcards. At the time, the idea of derivative products was new in the world of museums. At the National Museums Meeting, the sales department was set up in 1931, but it really took off in the 1970s. While it is not known whether the French Railways Museum drew on that model, it may be surmised that railways, nurtured by the imaginary world of toys and model trains, contributed to the phenomenon.
La Vie du Rail, the Epinal printer Pellerin, and the publishers La Cigogne and Dernières Nouvelles d’Alsace were some of the creative commercial partners. Postcards, stickers, slides, scrap books and cut-and-paste sheets were some of the souvenirs that visitors or contacts of the museum so liked. Michel Doerr then revealed his hand as a postcard strategist. In a letter to the Compagnie des Arts Photomécaniques of 1975, the Director defended the idea that the photograph of one of the locomotives should be framed so as to not include an “environment […] that is a fairly unattractive”.
Children, and others
From the very beginning, the museum attracted railway workers, technicians, tourists, enthusiasts of fine objects, families and school groups. The archives of the 1970s are full of letters written in a child’s hand, from class representatives or teachers’ pets. To all these notes, Michel Doerr gave the same reply: “of course you can come and visit the museum with your class!” You were even advised to bring your own food, which you could eat under the parasols or in the restaurant car. A guide, slides and films were also available. Some items in the collection were educational, and reproduced in books for children. One of these is the Encyclopaedia in stamps: International locomotives and trains published in 1972 by Les Éditions des Deux Coqs d’Or. A small disc on the cover presented the book as “indispensable for all, boys and girls, who want to have fun as they learn , illustrate their books or make collections”.
“The little boy places a yellow cube behind a blue one and shouts in triumph: “A train”. Even after the moon landings, trains continue to enjoy a place in children’s imaginations, along with aeroplanes and cars.”
– Anonymous, excerpt from the article “The fascinating steam locomotives of the museum in Mulhouse” in L’Est Républicain, Nancy, no 490, 27 June 1971
