Musée Rambolitrain, Model train museum in Rambouillet, France
Musée Rambolitrain occupies a late 19th-century meulière stone house on place Jeanne-d'Arc in central Rambouillet, with a brown and beige stone facade, a dark slate mansard roof, two dormer windows with white shutters and two brick chimneys. Behind its black iron fence, the two floors hold over 4,000 pieces, mainly toy trains made in the 19th and 20th centuries, and a working layout whose tracks run 500 metres at 1/43 scale.
The museum was founded in 1984 and received national recognition as a museum of France in 2003 for its work in preserving railway heritage. This designation confirmed its importance as a key institution for understanding railway history.
The museum displays model trains and dioramas representing different periods of railway development. These miniature scenes tell the story of how rail transport shaped the way people moved and lived.
The museum occupies a late 19th-century meulière house on Place Jeanne-d'Arc, in the centre of Rambouillet, with the collection on two floors. The garden train runs only a few times a year, so check the museum's programme before travelling if riding it matters to you.
Several times a year, visitors can ride a small coal-fired steam train on a 184 mm gauge track that circles the museum building through its garden. The collection itself numbers over 4,000 pieces, mostly toy trains made in the 19th and 20th centuries.
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