A Visit to the Egyptian Railways Museum

(Click on any photo to enlarge.  Follow this link to my Flickr album with all of the Railway Museum pictures.)

Yesterday, we headed downtown to Ramses Station to visit the Egyptian Railways Museum.  We heard that it was finally open and we thought it wise to get there soon.



I have blogged about the Railways Museum and Ramses Station in previous years so I will concentrate on the museum content this time.  Follow those links if you want to see more.

I noticed that old number "986" outside the museum has received a new paint job since our last visit.  This locomotive dates from 1865.


There are two floors to the museum and a wide variety of transportation exhibits.  The original museum was established in 1933 when Cairo hosted the International Railway Congress.

King Fouad directed the building of the museum, so naturally there is a large bronze bust of him inside.  King Fouad shows up in a lot of museums here.


The major historic holding of the museum is the 1862 Saied Pasha locomotive built in England by the Robert Stephenson & Co.






There are a number of items of railway equipment, although the labeling is a bit confusing.



And there are a few non-railway transportation models, too.  Some of these also have rather cryptic descriptions.  For example, this airplane labeled only as a "Horsa" and described as follows:

This model represents one of the planes which are used for transporting for long distance, old type.

It turns out that the "Horsa" is a British Handley Page HP 42.  There were only four of them built, all around 1931, and they were named the Hannibal, the Horsa, the Hana and the Hadrian. Imperial Airlines used the Horsa on the Cairo to Pakistan leg of their flights from England to Australia.  What did we ever do before Google and Wikipedia?

At the conclusion of the visit, we ended up on the second floor at a large model railroad layout.  As I looked it over, the museum director came by, turned on the lights and started up the trains and equipment.
I recorded a few seconds of that and put it onto YouTube.


This museum is not one of the most exciting exhibits in Cairo but if you've seen all the other museums or have a serious interest in trains and transportation then you may want to consider a visit.

More links for the Egyptian Railway Museum:
Is Cairo's Raiway Museum Lost - 2012 
Egypt's Railway Museum inaugurated after major renovation - 2016