The exhibition 150 years of Maliebaan station has been opened in the Railway Museum. Curators Arjan den Boer and Evelien Pieters talked about the Oosterspoorweg and the design of the exhibition: about living and working at the station, the design and construction of the Oosterspoorweg and the station over the years. From the station where the train to Paris left, to the shunting and freight station. And from the black page of the Second World War to its current function as a museum.
On June 10, 1874, the Hollandsche Iron Railway Company opened a branch of the Oosterspoorlijn that ran from Hilversum to Utrecht. The choice of the location of the station took some time. The originally planned route went over the Singel and the Zocherplantsoen with a station at the Hieronymusplantsoen and filling in the Stadsbuitengracht. This led to strong protests from local residents and the municipal council was also against it. The objections focused on loss of walking greenery, closure of the shipping route and obstruction of road traffic. People also feared nuisance from ‘rolling and smoking locomotives’. Buys Ballot of the KNMI at the Zonnenburg stronghold was afraid of disruption to the measuring equipment, while the prison director of Wolvenplein feared that prisoners would keep thinking about the outside world due to passing trains and ‘immediately make plans to escape’.
Director Leontien Lems is pleased that there is an exhibition in the station building for the first time in twenty years. And, the exhibition is a gift to the city, because it is free to enter. From April 25 to November 1 in the Railway Museum.
Read more about the history of the Railway Museum.
