Museo do Ferrocarril de Galicia, Railway museum in Monforte de Lemos, Spain
Museo del Ferrocarril de Galicia occupies the old traction workshop and locomotive depot of Monforte de Lemos station, a horseshoe-shaped roundhouse with a 25-metre turntable giving access to 38 tracks. It is the largest structure of its kind in Spain and the only one in Galicia. The museum holds the country's largest collection of historic passenger coaches.
The museum opened in 2001 in the old Monforte de Lemos depot, whose horseshoe-shaped roundhouse with a 25-metre turntable served steam locomotives based at the station. The roundhouse was restored in 2007 by the Galaico Expreso III workshop and in 2015 entered the European industrial heritage catalogue. In 2023 an agreement with ALSA Rail was signed to revive the historic Tren Galaico Expreso.
The museum keeps the Alco 1812, which from 1962 hauled the "Xangai" express between Barcelona, Monforte and A Coruña until its withdrawal in 1993. The saloon coach ZZ1, built in Beasain in 1929 for the director of the Norte railway company, has a lounge, a bedroom with an office, a shower and a telephone.
The museum occupies the old Monforte de Lemos traction depot, entered through the horseshoe-shaped roundhouse. Inside, a 25-metre mechanical turntable gives access to 38 tracks leading to the locomotive bays. A five-inch miniature railway circuit, opened in 2011 and extended to about 600 metres in 2016, runs as far as the roundhouse.
The collection includes one of Spain's largest assemblies of historical passenger coaches, notably an electric locomotive from early high-speed rail development. These vehicles showcase the evolution of train technology and demonstrate how travel experiences changed across the decades.
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