The main purpose of the railway collection in establishing the museum was, as with most other areas, the documentation and promotion of contemporary railway technology. Leading Czech railway machines works, whose representatives were members of the relevant “department groups”, donated to the museum’s collection many samples of new or tested parts. In time, the railway department’s activities became more focused on documenting the development of the railway transportation on the territory of what is now the Czech Republic.
 

In addition to the extensive collection of old-fashioned rail vehicles that number more than 150 vehicles of normal or narrow gauge and is constantly being added to, the NTM’s Railway Museum also collects parts of tractive or drawn vehicles (travel, boiler, steam engine, carriage), various railway equipment (instruments, safety equipment, uniform) and relevant accessories. Artefacts from mass city transport are represented in a limited extent in the collection, though other specialised museums present them in more depth in the Czech Republic.

 The railway collection is further broken down into subgroups containing objects belonging to relevant areas of railway history.

 
Workshops

In addition to the unique Davis&Primrose steam hammer from 1872 and several items of mechanical equipment, the workshops feature machine equipment from former machine works that are to be on display in the new part of the Railway Museum future exhibit – the Railway Machine Works.

Draisines

The draisines in the collection are hand and/or foot powered (the oldest from 1850) as well as motor draisines – an open Ringhoffer draisine from 1908 or the oldest product of the Wohanka machine works in Příbram from 1910. There are also here four Tatra automobile-draisines – the oldest from 1930 is a four-passenger “sedan” body, the most recent and most luxurious from 1952 is a six-passenger – it was featured in e.g. the Oscar award-winning film “Closely Watched Trains”.

Communication

This subgroup captures the development of communication means, e.g. the telegraph and telephone, serving communication purposes in railway operations with the various railway companies on the territory of what is now the Czech Republic from 1850 to present.

Locomotives

The nearly 80 vehicles include steam locomotives and modern tractive vehicles, mostly of the former Czechoslovak Railways, from the mid 19th century to the end of the 1960s. The most valuable is the half-tender steam locomotive of the former Buštěhrad line I.103 Kladno from 1855 – this is the oldest steam locomotive preserved in our country and also the oldest of three preserved locomotives of its type in the world. A unique object is the cog steam locomotive 404.003 from 1901, originally a G 23 Polaun that was supplied for our only cog railway Tanvald – Kořenov. Also worthy of attention is the Komarek steam engine M124.001 that was in 2005-2006 restored to its original state. Several vehicles are displayed in the permanent exhibit of the history of transportation in the NTM’s hall on Letná, other vehicles can be viewed in the exhibits of railway museums (Lužná u Rakovníka, Jaroměř); some that can still be operated are used for regular historical trips. This also applies for modern tractive vehicles – whether the locomotive engine T478.1010 from 1967 on the test centre track at VUZ Velim, or the historic electric railcar M400.001 from 1903 that still runs on its regular track – Křižík’s first intercity line Tábor – Bechyně.

Models

In addition to the historically valuable, originally workable models, of which the highest value can be attributed to the locomotive of the Mařík brothers from 1866-1874, the collection also features models of locomotives and motor and electric tractive railcars, e.g. the Breitfeld&Daněk express locomotive from the period of the electrification of the Prague railway node in 1927.

Train Stations

The subgroup’s objective is to document the equipping of exteriors and interiors of train station buildings, such as station calling bells, information bells or ticket counters – in this case of the Main Station in Prague. The time range of this subgroup is from the mid 19th century to the present day.

People

This subgroup features objects linked to people working in railway transportation or building the railway network in our country. These include uniforms of railway employees, their parts and busts of, for instance, František Křižík.

Instruments

Measuring and control instruments are among the accessories of tractive or drawn vehicles, or of various railway equipment, including indicators of steam locomotives. These include manometers, thermometers, speedometers, some made as recording instruments for the permanent recording of measured values for operating or test purposes.

Parts

This subgroup contains various parts or smaller construction units of vehicles and of other equipment, e.g. wheels, boilers or other parts – fittings, locomotive steam engines, propulsion and gear parts and many others.

Trams

This marginal collection features a unique undercarriage of a railcar of the Křižík electrical line Prague - Libeň – Vysočany from 1896 and series of controllers as well as the body of Prague tram no. 265 that the architect Jan Kotěra designed and the Ringhoffer plants in Smíchov manufactured.

Tracks

This subgroup contains collection objects documenting the development of the track structure. It features samples of tracks from various periods of railway construction in our country, including of the oldest horse-drawn tracks. The time range is from the 1820s to present.

Carriages

The drawn vehicles (without own propulsion) are represented by all types of the most luxurious parlour carriages – from passenger, service, postal, coupled carriages from motor transportation to freight wagons – closed, open and special purpose. There are four parlour carriages in the NTM’s collection – most were manufactured by Ringhoffer at Smíchov, the largest machine works of its kind in the former monarchy. The original dining hall of the court train of Emperor Franz Joseph I with rich ornamentation (1891) is on display at Letná, the carriage for trips of the successor to the throne Franz Ferdinand of Austria (1909) is occasionally operated, the biaxial carriage for the former Ústí nad Labem – Teplice line (1900) and the quadri-axial wagon produced for the Baron Rothschild in Kopřivnice (1906) are stored in Chomutov.

Safety

The subgroup contains collection objects presenting the development of railway safety equipment on the territory of the present-day Czech Republic. This subgroup contains a time range from the 1830s to present. It includes mechanical signals of various railway management or electro-mechanic control instruments. This subgroup is, as with others, constantly augmented with other collection objects.