Work of 1995 and storage at the musem
In 1994, the storage agreement between SNCF and the museum association was signed. The document restated the link between the two bodies through the collection. A year later, in 1995, a new storage building was inaugurated. The 10,000 m² area was funded by the regional directorate for cultural affairs, the region, the department and the city of Mulhouse. In 2002, the collection of the organisation secured the Museum of France appellation. Over 30 years after the first discussions between André Malraux and Michel Doerr in 1969 and 20 years after the visit in 1982 from the director of museums of France, Mr Landais, the approval restated the importance of technical museums. Stations, through the great exhibition organised at the Pompidou centre in 1978-1979 (Le Temps des gares), and the opening of the Orsay Museum in the former Parisian station in 1986, themselves became the subject of museums or settings of museums.
25th anniversary
of the Museum
In 1996, the city of Mulhouse and SNCF celebrated their silver wedding anniversary. For their 25th anniversary, they organised exhibitions on cinema, railway occupations, international model train exhibitions organised by RAMCAS and above all, a visit to the Alstom factory in a steam train thanks to AMEEF (Mulhouse association of railways studies and trips). The invitation cards informed the visitors that one vintage train may hide another. That was because the Museum was not the only one celebrating a silver jubilee. The tourist train of the Doller valley was also marking a quarter century of its existence. Offering steam journeys on the section between Cernay and Sentheim, the tourist railway was also responsible for restoring rolling stock listed as historical monuments. The availability of a ticket combined with admission to the museum in the early 2000s now enabled visitors to enter the life of a locomotive, from workshops to the museum.
The museum
as a film set
This virtual retrospective could not adequately describe all the concerts and filming sessions organised in the museum in the 1980s. As an inexhaustible source of creation and inspiration, the museum was used as a film set or the venue for shows. La Tête et les jambes in 1977, Marcel Amont in 1980, Musica in 1985 and 1991, Talk Talk in 1986, LUI in 1989, or the protagonists of Sacrée soirée in 1994: all of these left an impression on the museum, where trains often became the main character, instead of merely being a decor.
2003 : Train Capital
“The tasks of the organisers of a retrospective exhibition is the most delicate and complicated of all. You need to look for, and find, objects that are of interest; then you must persuade the fortunate owners of those objects to give them to you and lastly, you need to transport these extremely valuable pieces.”
– Maurice Bixio, Introduction to the Note on the Centennial Exhibition on Means of Transport, 1901
In 2002, the museum was in a state of high agitation. Some rolling stock was getting ready to leave its Vosges valley for the streets of Paris. This major event, which was widely filmed, commented and photographed, was called “Train Capital”. From 17 May to 15 June 2003, the Buddicom, the Crampton, the BB 9004, the PR2 and the ambulance carriage were displayed on the Champs-Elysées to an enchanted public. The event organised by SNCF in partnership with Bombardier, Alstom and Siemens turned out to be a Titanesque enterprise. From Mulhouse to Paris, its organisation required many months of preparation and the support of the army, particularly for convoys travelling by road. This open-air exhibition, which put the SNCF collection on show, also created a sense of nostalgia. More than a century after the Universal Exposition of 1900, the words of Maurice Bixio still echo between the service roads of the most beautiful avenue in the world.
From the French Railways Museum to the Cité du Train
In the early 2000s, the French Railways Museum began preparing for change. While ten pieces of rolling stock were on display in Paris, work began in Mulhouse. François Seigneur (1942-2019), the architect selected, proposed a themed renewal of the museum.
While the original building A would be retained, buildings B and C give way to a large and colourful hall: the Show Tour. The move was mainly aimed at remedying decreasing attendance and rejuvenating the image of the museum. At the same time, the firm Culture Espace, which was already in charge of managing the automobile museum in Mulhouse, was appointed as the manager.
A new era began: that of the Cité du Train.
