Raúl Scalabrini Ortiz National Railway Museum, National railway museum in Retiro district, Buenos Aires, Argentina
The Raúl Scalabrini Ortiz National Railway Museum holds locomotives, passenger cars, freight wagons, telegraph equipment, and tools used to maintain tracks and stations across more than a century. The exhibits also include tickets, uniforms, signaling devices, and operational records that show how the railway system functioned day to day.
The museum opened in 1969 to preserve Argentina's railway history, which began in the 1850s and expanded rapidly through the following decades. What was once one of the world's largest railway networks significantly shaped the country's growth and economy.
The collection shows how trains shaped daily life in Argentina across generations, displaying personal items and equipment that everyday travelers once used. You can see how railways connected communities and influenced the way people moved through the country.
The building sits on Avenida del Libertador in the Retiro neighborhood and welcomes visitors on weekdays, with spaces dedicated to research and archives. Allow several hours to move through the galleries and examine the equipment up close, as the collection spans many decades of railway history.
The museum houses a specialized research center with archives holding thousands of historical photographs, technical blueprints, and administrative documents spanning over a century of railway operations. These materials reveal details about how stations were built, how routes were planned, and how the organization managed thousands of employees.
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