Many years ago, our association was engaged in organizing the lectures regarding the history of railways in the Warsaw’s Museum of Technology. We hope to get back to this tradition thanks to the club KEN54 from Ursynów, famous of its railway fan-friendly atmosphere. On the occasion of the Railwaymen Day, our colleague dr Ariel Ciechański prepared two separate lectures. The first one was more related to the history and the latter to the current practices of taking care of railway heritage.

The first lecture took place on 19th November at 7PM. Ariel presented the results of transporting beer by rail and the history of special cars used for this purpose. The lecture How beer travelled by rail was very popular not only among the railway enthusiasts. During the lecture, participants could learn why transporting beer by rail was more profitable, what logistical challenges had to be faced, what type of cars had to be used for this purpose and what developments were required. The author underlined the importance of political influence on the way the beer was distributed. Most of the examples were based on the neighbouring Czechia, where rail transport of beer was the most common.

26th November was the date of the second lecture. This time it was Authenticity versus Modernity in Railway Museums – potential future of railway museum in Warsaw. During the lecture, Ariel presented different approaches to the presentation of railway exhibits. He started with the conventional static outdoor exhibitions on example of the museum in Sybin, Romania, Bulgarian Museum of Transport in Russe and Museum Of Railway Technology at the Main Station in Riga. Another examples were engine sheds adapted for museum like Lužné u Rakovníka in Czechia or Strasshof in Austria. The opposite side of the approach are modern buildings prepared specifically for the purpose of the museum like newly build roundhouse of Lokpark in Ampflwang or modern edifice of museum in Brussels. Last was the example of a perfect compromise between different approaches on the example of Museum of Russian Railways in Sankt Petersburg. A separate topic was devoted to specialistic museums dealing with a very narrow domains eg. railway traffic control on the example of Muzejní expozice sdělovací a zabezpečovací techniky. The lecture was finalized with a heated discussion on what path should the Warsaw’s museum follow.

On behalf of club KEN54 we would like to thank all participants of both events. We would also like to thank Jonasz Przybyszewski (Wolne Tory Photo) for allowing us to use his photos from the events.