The Finnish Railway Museum

The Finnish Railway Museum, maintained by the Rautatiemuseon Säätiö, is a national museum founded in 1898 to collect, preserve, research and display to present the history of railways in Finland. It is situated at Hyvinkää where the first private railway in Finland, the Hanko-Hyvinkää Rautatie, terminated. The museum is housed in the former station buildings, an engine shed dating from the 1870 and two modern display halls to provide 5,000 sq. metres of display space in three hectares of grounds. The museum welcomes 25,000 visitors a year and arranges numerous events and exhibitions.

The Finnish Railway Museum collection includes items that range from locomotives to photographs, but one of the gems in the collection is the Russian Imperial Train used by the Tsar for travel on Finnish Railways. The museum has initiated projects to advance the documentation and preservation of the train, and has publishsed "Keisarin juna - Romanovit Suomen rautateillä," (The Tsar’s Train – The Romanovs on Finnish Railways), a study on its history. Other permanent exhibition themes are Permanent Way Construction, Railway Professions, Travel, and Railway Safety. The Finnish Railway Museum website can be found at www.rautatiemuseo.fi.