Station Museum (Stacja Muzeum)

On the tracks of the former Warszawa Główna station on ul. Towarowa stand more than 50 historic rail vehicles — from early 20th-century steam engines to electric locomotives from the communist era. Among them are Poland's only complete armoured train, a saloon car once used by Bolesław Bierut, communist Poland's first leader, and a streamlined Pm3 steam locomotive, the only one of its class surviving anywhere in the world. This is the Station Museum, successor to Warsaw's Railway Museum.

A museum with almost a century of history

Railway workers first proposed a museum soon after Poland regained independence in 1918. The Railway Museum opened on 18 February 1928 in the west wing of what was then Warsaw's Main Station. When that wing was demolished to make way for the cross-city railway line, the collection moved to a rented building on ul. Nowy Zjazd; by 1939 it had gathered more than 4,000 exhibits, including nearly 400 models and 8,000 books. After the war the museum was re-established only in 1972 — it opened in the Warszawa Główna Osobowa station building on 11 September 1973 with 93 exhibits, including 40 locomotives.

The Station Museum

Disputes over the station site dragged on for years: from at least 2004 the Polish State Railways (PKP) tried to sell the land under the museum. The solution was a new cultural institution, set up in 2015 jointly by the Mazovia regional government and PKP. The Railway Museum was dissolved at the end of March 2016, and its collections, including a large library, passed to the Station Museum. Plans to move the exhibition to Warsaw's Odolany depot were eventually dropped, and the museum remains at the old station.

Exhibits worth the trip

• The armoured train — the PzTrWg16 armoured locomotive of 1942 with an artillery wagon; the museum describes it as the only such set in Poland and one of very few preserved in Europe.
• Bierut's saloon car — a pre-war carriage whose most famous years came after the war, carrying Bolesław Bierut, Władysław Gomułka and other communist dignitaries.
• The Pm3 steam locomotive of 1940 with its streamlined casing — the only surviving example of its class.
• According to collection lists, also steam engines from different eras and countries, including the Pm2 express locomotive of 1936, the American-built Tr203 of 1945 and the Polish Pt47, plus the EW51 electric multiple unit of 1936 and the ST44-001 diesel locomotive.

Indoors, the museum shows temporary exhibitions, rolling-stock models, uniforms, clocks, lamps and documents from the history of railways in Poland. This part is a good refuge when the weather is not right for the open-air display.

The Sochaczew branch

The Station Museum also runs the Narrow Gauge Railway Museum in Sochaczew, on the site of a former narrow-gauge station, with a collection of about 170 narrow-gauge vehicles. On summer weekends the Px29-1704 steam locomotive of 1929 usually pulls a train from there along an 18-km route via Brochów to the Kampinos Forest.

Tripto tip

The museum is at ul. Towarowa 3, near Warszawa Ochota station. It is open every day except Tuesday, 10:00–18:00, and admission is free on Mondays (as of October 2026); last entry is 30 minutes before closing. Allow 1–1.5 hours for the open-air display. Most vehicles stand outdoors, so pick a dry day and wear comfortable shoes — you walk on track ballast between the rails.