Narrow Gauge Railway Museum in Sochaczew

Every clock at the Narrow Gauge Railway Museum in Sochaczew shows 15:35. That is the time the last passenger train of the Sochaczew County Railway left here on 30 November 1984. That December a museum was established at the old station, and today it holds Poland's largest collection of narrow-gauge rolling stock, while in season a heritage train still carries passengers to the edge of the Kampinos Forest.

History: from a county line to a museum

The Sochaczew narrow-gauge line, with a track gauge of 750 mm, opened in 1922 as a local county railway and later ran as the Sochaczew County Railway and, after the war, as the Sochaczew Access Railway. For more than 60 years it was an important part of local transport. Rolling stock began to be collected at the station about ten years before the line closed, and when services ended in 1984 the Railway Museum in Warsaw took it over. The exhibition opened on 6 September 1986. Today the museum is a branch of Stacja Muzeum, a cultural institution run by the Masovian regional government.

What to see

The museum describes its collection of narrow-gauge rail vehicles as the largest in Poland and one of the largest in Europe. On the old station site you will find:

• steam, diesel and electric locomotives, including engines from sugar factories and industrial plants,
• draisines, passenger coaches and freight wagons, among them tank wagons from 1913 and 1929 built by the Warsaw firm Lilpop, Rau i Loewenstein,
• the permanent exhibition "The History of the Sochaczew Narrow Gauge Railway 1922–1984", with uniforms, documents and a stone plaque funded by railwaymen in 1919,
• the saloon car of General Wojciech Jaruzelski, Poland's communist-era leader.

Did you know?

The oldest locomotive in the collection dates from 1882 and worked at the sugar factory in Wierzchosławice. The collection also includes an FSO Warszawa car converted into a rail draisine. The museum grounds are often used as a film location and for music videos.

The Retro train to the Kampinos Forest

In season, from late April to the end of September, the museum runs trips on its heritage Retro train. Hauled by a diesel locomotive, it covers more than 18 km each way at about 15 km/h: 9 km through the town and 9 km through fields and woods. The programme starts with a guided tour of the museum, then the train runs to Wilcze Tułowskie for a walk in the Kampinos National Park, with a stop for a bonfire picnic at Tułowice on the way back. The trip runs from about 9:20 until the afternoon, and tickets for scheduled trains are sold mainly online.

Tripto tip

The museum is open daily 9:00–17:00, with last entry to the exhibition 30 minutes before closing. A standard ticket costs PLN 25, reduced PLN 16, family PLN 75, and entry is free on Wednesdays. Cards are accepted. The museum is at ul. Towarowa 7, with the entrance from ul. Licealna. Allow 1–1.5 hours for the museum alone; for the Retro train trip set aside most of the day and buy tickets in advance.