The Swiss Museum of Transport or Verkehrshaus der Schweiz (literally "Transportation House of Switzerland") in
Lucerne
Lucerne ( , ; High Alemannic German, High Alemannic: ''Lozärn'') or Luzern ()Other languages: gsw, Lozärn, label=Lucerne German; it, Lucerna ; rm, Lucerna . is a city in central Switzerland, in the Languages of Switzerland, German-speaking po ...
opened in July 1959 and exhibits all forms of
transport
Transport (in British English), or transportation (in American English), is the intentional movement of humans, animals, and goods from one location to another. Modes of transport include air, land (rail and road), water, cable, pipeline, an ...
including
train
In rail transport, a train (from Old French , from Latin , "to pull, to draw") is a series of connected vehicles that run along a railway track and Passenger train, transport people or Rail freight transport, freight. Trains are typically pul ...
s,
automobile
A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with Wheel, wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, Car seat, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport private transport#Personal transport, pe ...
s,
ship
A ship is a large watercraft that travels the world's oceans and other sufficiently deep waterways, carrying cargo or passengers, or in support of specialized missions, such as defense, research, and fishing. Ships are generally distinguished ...
s and
aircraft
An aircraft is a vehicle that is able to fly by gaining support from the air. It counters the force of gravity by using either static lift or by using the dynamic lift of an airfoil, or in a few cases the downward thrust from jet engines ...
as well as
communication
Communication (from la, communicare, meaning "to share" or "to be in relation with") is usually defined as the transmission of information. The term may also refer to the message communicated through such transmissions or the field of inquir ...
technology. It is Switzerland's most popular museum. The museum also maintains a large collection of work by
Hans Erni
Hans Erni (February 21, 1909 – March 21, 2015) was a Swiss graphic designer, painter, illustrator, engraver and sculptor.
Born in Lucerne, the third of eight siblings, to a cabin cruiser engineer, he studied art at the Académie Julian in Par ...
, a local painter and sculptor.
There are several other attractions in the museum besides the collection, including a
planetarium
A planetarium ( planetariums or ''planetaria'') is a theatre built primarily for presenting educational and entertaining shows about astronomy and the night sky, or for training in celestial navigation.
A dominant feature of most planetarium ...
, a large-format cinema and a 1:20,000 scale aerial photograph of Switzerland.
History
The museum traces its history to 1897, when the first attempts at creating a museum of railway equipment were made. Following a national exhibition in 1914, the Swiss Railway Museum was founded by
Swiss Federal Railways
Swiss Federal Railways (german: link=no, Schweizerische Bundesbahnen, ''SBB''; french: link=no, Chemins de fer fédéraux suisses, ''CFF''; it, Ferrovie federali svizzere, ''FFS'') is the national railway company of Switzerland. It is usuall ...
in 1918 in Zurich. The concept eventually grew to encompass all transportation and, in 1942, the Swiss Museum of Transport association was established. Swiss Federal Railways was joined by the
Swiss Postal Telegraph and Telephone as well as other private transport, trade, industry, and tourism organizations. However, when no suitable site could be found in Zurich for the planned museum, the city of Lucerne offered the association a site adjacent to
Lake Lucerne
__NOTOC__
Lake Lucerne (german: Vierwaldstättersee, literally "Lake of the four forested settlements" (in English usually translated as ''forest cantons''), french: lac des Quatre-Cantons, it, lago dei Quattro Cantoni) is a lake in central ...
. Construction began in 1957 and the museum was opened two years later on 1 July 1959. A planetarium was added in 1969 and an aerospace hall in 1972.
In the course of a storm, flooding occurred in the museum on the night of 21-22 August 2005, which inundated some of the displays and damaged contents in the basement rooms of the navigation and aviation departments.
Exhibits
The museum is divided into a variety of thematic areas:
Rail
Amongst the rail transport collection are rolling stock from Switzerland's first ever railway, the
Swiss Northern Railway
The Swiss Northern Railway (German: ''Schweizerische Nordbahn'', SNB), informally known as the ''Spanisch-Brötli-Bahn'', opened the first railway line within Switzerland in 1847, the Zürich–Baden line. This followed the extension of a Fre ...
and a
SBB Ae 8/14
The SBB-CFF-FFS Ae 8/14 is a class of electric locomotives built for Swiss Federal Railways to be used on the Gotthard railway. Only three prototype engines were built between 1931 and 1938, each of them in a different design.
The steep 2.7% g ...
electric engine. An
H0 gauge
HO or H0 is a rail transport modelling scale using a 1:87 scale (3.5 mm to 1 foot). It is the most popular scale of model railway in the world. The rails are spaced apart for modelling standard gauge tracks and trains in HO. NMRA"Mo ...
model railway layout of the Gotthard portrays the northern ramp of the
Gotthard railway
The Gotthard railway (german: Gotthardbahn; it, Ferrovia del Gottardo) is the Swiss trans-alpine railway line from northern Switzerland to the canton of Ticino. The line forms a major part of an important international railway link between no ...
between
Erstfeld
Erstfeld is a municipality in the canton of Uri in Switzerland.
History
In 1962 a collection of four gold torques and three gold arm rings were discovered near Erstfeld. While the exact origin date is unknown, they are likely from the 4th cent ...
station and the
Göschenen
Göschenen (German, it, Casinotta, rm, Caschanuttais) a village and municipality in the canton of Uri in Switzerland. It sits at the northern end of the Gotthard tunnel. The Göschenen riots (1875) saw Urner troops opening fire on Italian miners ...
tunnel, including the three loop/curved tunnels near
Wassen
Wassen is a municipality in the canton of Uri in Switzerland.
Geography
, Wassen has an area of . Of this area, 12.5% is used for agricultural purposes, while 18.2% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 1.1% is settled (buildings or roads) and ...
. Due to reconstruction of a part of the railway hall this large model railway was removed and put to storage until further notice. The hall also features a train simulator, which visitors can use to travel through the
NRLA
The New Railway Link through the Alps (NRLA; german: Neue Eisenbahn-Alpentransversale, NEAT, french: nouvelle ligne ferroviaire à travers les Alpes, NLFA, it, Nuova ferrovia transalpina, NFTA), is a Swiss construction project for faster north†...
base tunnel.
Automotive
The road transport collection on display contains horse-drawn vehicles, bicycles, motorcycles and cars, as well as an exhibition on road safety realized in cooperation with the
Swiss Council for Accident Prevention
Swiss may refer to:
* the adjectival form of Switzerland
*Swiss people
Places
* Swiss, Missouri
*Swiss, North Carolina
*Swiss, West Virginia
*Swiss, Wisconsin
Other uses
*Swiss-system tournament, in various games and sports
*Swiss International ...
. One major attraction is the Car Theatre, in which a vehicle, selected from a collection of vehicles from all periods of automobile history, is hoisted out of a high-bay warehouse and presented on a stage. The external facades of the hall are covered by 344 Swiss road signs. The hall is also home to a special exhibition on the world of logistics. It comprises an AutoStore automated small parts warehouse, an animated miniature distribution centre, a tyre robot, interactive picking stations, and the virtual harvest-to-retail journey of a pineapple.
Aviation
The current aviation exhibition features civil aviation, mountain and rescue interventions, Swiss engineering achievements, and flying as a career. The 30 or so original aircraft on display range from a 1909
Dufaux 4 __NOTOC__
The Dufaux 4 was an experimental aircraft built in Switzerland in 1909 and which was originally constructed as an unnamed biplane, the third aircraft constructed by the brothers Armand and Henri Dufaux. The aircraft was entirely con ...
biplane, the oldest surviving Swiss aircraft; a
Blériot XI
The Blériot XI is a French aircraft of the pioneer era of aviation. The first example was used by Louis Blériot to make the first flight across the English Channel in a heavier-than-air aircraft, on 25 July 1909. This is one of the most fam ...
flown by aviation pioneer
Oskar Bider
Oskar Bider (12 July 1891 in Langenbruck – 7 July 1919 in Dübendorf) was a Swiss aviation pioneer.
Early life
Oskar Bider grew up in Langenbruck (canton of Basel-Land) and graduated from the primary school to the district school in Wal ...
, the only surviving
Lockheed Orion, three
Swissair
Swissair AG/ S.A. (German: Schweizerische Luftverkehr-AG; French: S.A. Suisse pour la Navigation Aérienne) was the national airline of Switzerland between its founding in 1931 and bankruptcy in 2002.
It was formed from a merger between Bal ...
aircraft, including a
Convair 990
The Convair 990 Coronado is an American narrow-body four-engined jet airliner produced between 1961 and 1963 by the Convair division of American company General Dynamics. It was a stretched version of its earlier Convair 880 produced in respon ...
; a
Northrop F-5E
The Northrop F-5 is a family of supersonic light fighter aircraft initially designed as a privately funded project in the late 1950s by Northrop Corporation. There are two main models, the original F-5A and F-5B Freedom Fighter variants and the ...
fighter in the colors of the
Patrouille Suisse
The Patrouille Suisse is an aerobatic team of the Swiss Air Force. The team flies six Northrop F-5E Tiger II fighter/bomber jets.
History
The Patrouille Suisse was founded on August 22, 1964 with four Hawker Hunters. Two displays were also f ...
aerobatic team, and a
Bombardier Challenger 604
The Bombardier Challenger 600 series is a family of business jets developed by Canadair after a Bill Lear concept, and then produced from 1986 by its new owner, Bombardier Aerospace.
At the end of 1975, Canadair began funding the developmen ...
used by the
Rega
The Rega is a river in north-western Poland, flowing into the Baltic Sea. It is the country's 24th longest river, with a total length of 188 km and a catchment area of 2,767 km2.weather drone
A weather drone, or weather-sensing uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV), – is a remotely piloted aircraft weighing less than 25 kg and carrying sensors that collect thermodynamic and kinematic data from the mid and lower atmosphere (e.g. up to 6 ...
patented by the Swiss company Meteomatics that collects weather data from the mid and low levels of the atmosphere.
Space
The space exhibit houses the 4.5 tonne
EURECA, one of only a few satellites returned safely to earth. Other displays include a
Spacelab
Spacelab was a reusable laboratory developed by European Space Agency (ESA) and used on certain spaceflights flown by the Space Shuttle. The laboratory comprised multiple components, including a pressurized module, an unpressurized carrier, ...
pallet, a piece of the original foil of the solar wind experiment conducted as part of the first
Apollo 11
Apollo 11 (July 16–24, 1969) was the American spaceflight that first landed humans on the Moon. Commander Neil Armstrong and lunar module pilot Buzz Aldrin landed the Apollo Lunar Module ''Eagle'' on July 20, 1969, at 20:17 UTC, an ...
moon landing, a
moon rock
Moon rock or lunar rock is rock originating from Earth's Moon. This includes lunar material collected during the course of human exploration of the Moon, and rock that has been ejected naturally from the Moon's surface and landed on Earth as ...
, a Martian landscape with full-size models of three
Mars rovers
A Mars rover is a motor vehicle designed to travel on the surface of Mars. Rovers have several advantages over stationary landers: they examine more territory, they can be directed to interesting features, they can place themselves in sunny pos ...
, and duplicates of measuring instruments that explored the
Churyumov-Gerasimenko comet as part of the
Rosetta mission. The interactive portion of the exhibition is a "Space Transformer", a large walk-in cube that rotates slowly around its diagonal axis, giving the impression of disorientation in a space station.
Navigation
The exhibits in the hall, which opened in 1984, provide an overview of how shipping developed in Switzerland. On display outside is the submersible
Mésoscaphe, designed by Auguste Piccard for the
Swiss national exposition of 1964 and the Rigi, the world's oldest surviving flush-deck side-wheeler steamer.
The "Nautirama" multimedia show depicts the marine history of
Central Switzerland
Central Switzerland is the region of the Alpine Foothills geographically the heart and historically the origin of Switzerland, with the cantons of Uri, Schwyz, Obwalden, Nidwalden, Lucerne and Zug.
Central Switzerland is one of the NUTS 2 Statist ...
. A cutaway model of the Pilatus saloon paddle steamer, engines by
Saurer
Adolph Saurer AG was a Swiss manufacturer of embroidery and textile machines, trucks and buses under the Saurer and Berna (beginning in 1929) brand names. Based in Arbon, Switzerland, the firm was active between 1903 and 1982. Their vehicles were ...
and
Escher & Wyss, outboard engines and
Voith-Schneider
A cyclorotor, cycloidal rotor, cycloidal propeller or cyclogiro, is a fluid propulsion device that converts shaft power into the acceleration of a fluid using a rotating axis perpendicular to the direction of fluid motion. It uses several blades wi ...
propellers trace the development of ship propulsion. Also in the exhibition are flying ships, the smallest two-man submersible, a model of the waterways locks in Birsfelden, sailing boats, a lifeboat from the ocean-going that sank in 1964, and a steamship parade featuring models of some of the vessels that ply Switzerland's lakes.
Aerial cableways
The exhibition illustrates developments in aerial cableway engineering from early hand-operated cableways and ski lifts to modern-day large-capacity cable cars. It includes a working model of
Engelberg
, neighboring_municipalities = Attinghausen (UR), Gadmen (BE), Innertkirchen (BE), Isenthal (UR), Wassen (UR), Wolfenschiessen (NW)
, twintowns=
Engelberg (lit.: ''mountain of angel(s)'') is a village resort and a municipality in the canton ...
's Stand-Kleintitlis reversible cableway and a cabin from the
Wetterhorn Elevator with original running gear. The exhibition also incorporates a section of the old
Grindelwald-Männlichen gondola cableway complete with cabin. The tourism section of the exhibition features the crowd-pulling Tourism Flipper marble run. The adjacent "Livemap Switzerland" is a 1:20000 scale aerial view of Switzerland that can be walked on.
Hans Erni Museum
Built in 1979, the museum has on display a large collection of works by the Lucerne artist
Hans Erni
Hans Erni (February 21, 1909 – March 21, 2015) was a Swiss graphic designer, painter, illustrator, engraver and sculptor.
Born in Lucerne, the third of eight siblings, to a cabin cruiser engineer, he studied art at the Académie Julian in Par ...
. It also holds temporary exhibitions featuring works by other artists. The second floor includes the Panta Rhei, a mural depicting great Western thinkers on two 18 meter long panels.
Other exhibits
Also located at the museum are a planetarium and a theater. An exhibit about media was sponsored by
Red Bull
Red Bull is a brand of energy drinks of Austria, Austrian company Red Bull GmbH. With 38% market share, it is the most popular energy drink brand as of 2019. Since its launch in 1987, more than 100 billion cans of Red Bull have been sold worldwid ...
.
Collection
Documentation Centre
The museum maintains a library and archive of documents related to transportation.
National Transport Collection
The museum maintains the Swiss National Transport Collection of items of "important technical, social, economic and cultural development" related to transportation that were "produced, modified and/or used in Switzerland".
Access
The museum is located on the shore of
Lake Lucerne
__NOTOC__
Lake Lucerne (german: Vierwaldstättersee, literally "Lake of the four forested settlements" (in English usually translated as ''forest cantons''), french: lac des Quatre-Cantons, it, lago dei Quattro Cantoni) is a lake in central ...
in the northern section of the
city of Lucerne, some 30 minutes walking time from the town centre. It is served by trains of the
Lucerne S-Bahn
The Lucerne S-Bahn (german: S-Bahn Luzern) is an S-Bahn-style commuter rail network focusing on Lucerne, Switzerland.
Opened on 12 December 2004, the network forms part of the Central Switzerland S-Bahn project (german: S-Bahn Zentralschweiz, link ...
at the adjacent
Lucerne Verkehrshaus railway station, by boat services of the
Schifffahrtsgesellschaft des Vierwaldstättersees
The ''Schifffahrtsgesellschaft des Vierwaldstättersees'' or Lake Lucerne Navigation Company (commonly abbreviated to SGV) is a public Swiss company operating passenger ships and boats on Lake Lucerne. The company is based in the city of Lucerne ...
at the
Verkehrshaus-Lido landing stage on the lake, and by the
Lucerne trolleybus system. All three provide convenient connections with central Lucerne.
See also
*
List of aerospace museums
This is a list of aviation museums and museums that contain significant aerospace-related exhibits throughout the world. The aviation museums are listed alphabetically by country and their article name.
Afghanistan
* OMAR Mine Museum, Kabul - inc ...
*
List of transport museums
A transport museum is a museum that holds collections of transport items, which are often limited to land transport (road and rail)—including old cars, motorcycles, trucks, trains, trams/streetcars, buses, trolleybuses and coaches—but can als ...
References
External links
Official museum websiteOfficial website of painter Hans Erni
Transport in Switzerland
Railway museums in Switzerland
Transport museums in Switzerland
Buildings and structures in Lucerne
Museums in Lucerne
{{Switzerland-museum-stub