Lviv's Railway Museum

This was our second trip to Lviv's Railway Museum, we caught the #2 bus without a hitch and were there within minutes. The building that houses the museum is big. We walked through the same frosted glass doors we'd gone through the day before, when the museum was closed for a national holiday, and saw an enormously wide set of doors open on to a darkened institutional hall way.


So it was with some surprise that the woman behind the counter walked us back out of the building and around to a side door for the museum itself - a room so small that Amy and I exchanged a glance and a smirk before a docent walked out to meet us. His name was Roman, and he talked to Amy for a solid half hour while Axel and I tried to keep ourselves occupied with the two larger model trains available for viewing.


Their conversation was more about the history of the occupation of Lviv by various parties than about the railway itself. Throughout the museum there were a handful of stone badges that labelled the railroad by ruling interest. These were very cool looking, and had hand-carved geometric patterns on the back. They were also devilishly difficult to get good photos of because of the light in the room and because they were hung from bright burnished poles by shiny lengths of chain.


Eventually it came out that in addition to be the museum docent, Roman was also the artist who'd painted the dozen or so portraits of leaders of the railway on display, carved a marble bust of the most recent head of the railway that would be used to derive a form for a bronze sculpture, and also painted the large mural of Lviv near the entrance.


Based on this description it may be difficult for you to know whether or not a visit to the Railway Museum is worth the trip. The museum is free. The model of the electric train is very cool and held Axel's interest for a good 10 minutes - Roman told Amy that it was used as an instructional tool for student engineers. There's also a model steam train that for some reason Axel was less interested in - quite possibly because it did not have a face. The museum also does a great job of conveying just how frequently Lviv has changed hands over the last few hundred years. Ultimately, if you're not a train person, then the primary reason you'd be interested in visiting is that your child or loved one is. And for train people, it's always worth it.

Nearly forgot, Roman encouraged me to take this photo of these wrenches.