Switzerland

A day at the Transport Museum

B Byrd

— 4 min read
A day at the Transport Museum

On Tuesday we made very good use of some comp tickets for the Verkehrshaus (Lucerne Transport Museum), courtesy of Matthias's work. As usual we were the last ones out, but could have easily spent three days there. It was literally "trains, planes and automobiles" (plus energy, space, farm equipment, heavy machinery etc. etc.)!

We had a quick look through the small power/electricity section, then headed into the very large trains area. F and J quite enjoyed the cargo container crane loading simulator and the train driving simulator (the second one was very similar to one they'd previously enjoyed at Ipswich's Railway Workshop Museum back home).

Off to repair some high voltage lines.
Much train!
Big engine with me for scale.
Cool cut-away showing the inside workings of a steam engine.
Junior train drivers in action.
And a junior crane operator.
Handcart races.
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Early trackless gondola/funicular. It was winched up but ran on steerable skis.

We then spent quite a bit of time in the cars area (and road-related stuff... there were some really well done road/bike/pedestrian safety exhibits).

One of the coolest exhibits was a giant rack of actual cars (Lamborghinis, Rinspeeds, Ferraris, Teslas... lots of older and weirder stuff including a wood-chip powered Opel). At various times you could vote (by big red button press) which car was picked out from the rack and brought down to the rotunda under spotlights, with an accompanying video about it.

Just a few local road signs.
And some more.
Picking a Rinspeed.

The boys had great fun in the mirror maze, despite F running right into a mirror at one point.

A-mazing!

We interspersed the car section with a visit to the IMAX to see Antarctica in 3D (icy brine fingers are awesomely surreal — though not necessarily enough to keep both A and I from occasionally nodding off).

A and the boys also got to do a VR bike ride (real bikes, VR surrounds) which was one of the safety exhibits.

Robot bartender/barista.
Who says we can't have electric offroaders?

We headed over to air and space next (though I did a quick diversion into boats, including reading about engines supplied by A's old employer, Sulzer).

I didn't get to the submarine. It's a passenger sub, used at Expo 64 in Switzerland.
Many, many planes (there seemed to be a red-and-white theme... I wonder why 🤔).
The only real-life space craft there. A European experimental reusable craft, it ended up only being used once, so was donated to the museum.
Disorientation simulator cube (I was the only one who got up to this area). You go inside and it slowly reorients around three axes, so you end up walking out on the ceiling.
Felix Baumgartner balloon pod. This one was used for test flights prior to his record-breaking jump from the stratosphere (space suit required).

A and the boys didn't get up to the space section, but did get to do some other simulations and see the "confiscations" exhibits — items confiscated from travellers at airports over the years.

As usual, we were some of the last people out. We hit peak hour traffic on the way home, resulting in a few missed turns in the traffic on the way. But we made it back in time for Matthias and I to pick up delicious local kebabs for dinner (which is what we did last time Matthias and I went out to get dinner... 11 years ago in Munich!).

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