Buenos Aires Museums: Chapter 02: Museo Nacional Ferroviario [ENG | ESP]

Continuing with my series on [Buenos Aires Museums](https://hive.blog/hive-163772/@cristiancaicedo/buenos-aires-museums-a-new-series-eng-or-esp), I decided for this second stop to show a place more related to history and machines than to art. With the aim of showing as much variety as possible and alternating places of great general interest with others that are perhaps less well-known, I will be leaving a different museum in the city of Buenos Aires each week so that you can add it to your list of places to visit when traveling or touring the Argentine capital. >Siguiendo con mi serie de [Museos de Buenos Aires](https://hive.blog/hive-163772/@cristiancaicedo/buenos-aires-museums-a-new-series-eng-or-esp) decidí para esta segunda parada mostrar un lugar más relacionado con la historia y las máquinas que con el arte. Con ánimos de mostrar lo más variado posible y de alternar lugares de mucho interés general con otros tal vez menos conocidos iré dejando cada semana un museo diferente de la ciudad de Buenos Aires para que los agreguen a su lista de lugares por visitar cuando viajen o recorran la capital argentina. I've always loved trains, ever since I was a child. It's funny because the first time I saw a real locomotive, I was already over thirty. Where did my love for these machines come from back then? I don't know. It's true that growing up, I saw the Hogwarts Express on screen or read books like Anna Karenina, in which trains are prominent, but I already had a certain fondness for them. For that reason, I've visited train museums in Santiago and Temuco, I went to the workshop of a railway company also in the Chilean capital, and while in Buenos Aires, as soon as I learned there was a similar place there, I organized a morning to visit it. The Raúl Scalabrini Ortiz National Railway Museum, located on Avenida del Libertador, was founded in 1971 and is open Monday through Friday. It offers guided tours in three languages ​​(Spanish, English, and Portuguese) four times a day. Admission is 5,000 Argentine pesos (less than $4 USD) for foreigners and half that price for residents. After passing through the portico bearing the name, you can enter a building whose interior first draws your attention: a recreation of a ticket office from the last century, where information on travel fares from that time is even displayed. The building's brickwork, the locomotive at the entrance, the bank, and the ticket office are the perfect introduction to the rest of the tour, which I took with a guide.  |  --- | ---  |  >Siempre, desde niño, me han gustado los trenes. Es curioso porque la primera vez que pude ver una locomotora real tenía ya más de treinta años, ¿de dónde venía el amor por estas máquinas entonces? No lo sé. Es cierto que al crecer pude ver en pantalla al Expreso de Hogwarts o leer libros como Ana Karenina, en donde los trenes son relevantes, pero ya existía en mí cierta afición hacia ellos. Por esa razón he visitado museo de trenes en Santiago, en Temuco, fui a la maestranza de una empresa de ferrocarriles también en la capital chilena y estando en Buenos Aires, en cuanto supe que allí también había un lugar similar, me organicé para visitarlo una mañana. El Museo Nacional Ferroviario "Raúl Scalabrini Ortiz", ubicado en la Avenida del Libertador, fue fundado en 1971 y está abierto de lunes a viernes. Ofrece a sus visitantes recorridos guiados en tres idiomas (español, inglés y portugués) cuatro veces por día y la entrada tiene un precio de 5.000 pesos argentinos (menos de 4 USD) para los extranjeros y la mitad de esa tarifa para los residentes. Después de atravesar el pórtico con el nombre se puede acceder a un edificio en cuyo interior lo primero que llama la atención es la recreación de una taquilla de venta de boletos del siglo pasado en donde se exhibe incluso una información con las tarifas de los viajes de entonces. El ladrillo del edificio, la locomotora en la entrada, el banco y la boletería son la presentación perfecta para lo que será el resto del recorrido que, en este caso, hice con un guía del lugar.  |  |  --- | --- | ---  |  |  --- Inside the building there are two floors full of exhibits with different antique objects: telephones from the early 20th century, typewriters, desks, tables, chairs, benches taken from real locomotives that served in the country, model trains, stations, samples of railway workers' uniforms, notices, posters of the trips they made, there are endless objects, each one with a story to tell about what it was like to travel in these machines. >En el interior del edificio hay dos pisos llenos de exposiciones con diferentes objetos antiguos: teléfonos de principios del siglo XX, máquinas de escribir, escritorios, mesas, sillas, bancos tomados de locomotoras reales que prestaron servicio en el país, maquetas de trenes, de estaciones, muestras de los uniformes de los trabajadores ferroviarios, avisos, carteles de los viajes que hacían, son un sinfín de objetos, cada uno con una historia que contar sobre lo que era viajar en estas máquinas. The most impressive part, of course, was having the chance to ride in real carriages from the last century, including one called the presidential carriage, used by the nation's leader when he traveled to the outskirts of Buenos Aires on that mode of transport. Being both a means of transportation and accommodation, trains with carriages of this style had all the necessary amenities for figures such as the president of the republic, foreign leaders, and others. Although I took more photos inside the carriage, most of them came out very dark due to the poor lighting, but it was very interesting to be able to walk through the same corridors that thousands of people had walked through for decades. Another thing I liked about the museum is that on the second floor there's a projector with chairs in front of it for visitors, showing different movie scenes featuring the country's train stations. I remember—because I was surprised to learn—that a sequence from _Seven Years in Tibet_, that famous film starring Brad Pitt, was filmed at a train station in La Plata. Argentines are a people proud of their land, their heroes, and their history, and in every museum I visit, I find examples of that pride. So, if you're interested in Argentine history, its modes of transportation, or if you're passionate about trains like I am, you have to include the Raúl Scalabrini Ortiz National Railway Museum on your next visit to Buenos Aires. How many of you know it? Do you like trains? I'll read you in the comments.  |  |  --- | --- | ---  |  |