Always fun, a beautiful exhibition that can be visited completely free of charge. Double fun, the Railway Museum is once again using the former Maliebaan station building as an exhibition space.
When the Railway Museum officially opened in 1954, the museum section was located in the so-called waiting rooms and office spaces of the former Maliebaan station. Nowadays the emphasis is on the platforms and the new construction behind the historic building.
The fact that the exhibition is free to enter also partly has to do with those changes in the museum, because you can buy a ticket in the hall of the old Maliebaan station, but the control is only at the entrance to the building behind it. So besides being a gift to the city of Utrecht, it is also a pragmatic decision to make the exhibition free.
But even if you had to pay for it, the exhibition is still worth a visit. It is also good to know that the exhibition is not only about the history of the building and the different functions it has had. A lot of attention is also paid to the people who used to work on and around the railways.
Press release Railway Museum:
On June 10, 1874, the Hollandsche Iron Railway Company opened a branch of the Oosterspoorlijn that ran from Hilversum to Utrecht. A monumental station was built near the Maliebaan as a boarding point for Utrecht travelers.
The choice of the location of the station took some time. The originally planned route went over the Singel and the Zocherplantsoen. 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. ‘With a railway through the park, Utrecht will lose its decency’, someone wrote. 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 because of passing trains and ‘immediately make plans to escape’. Ultimately, an alternative route was developed east of the Maliebaan with a station at the Maliebrug opposite Park Lepelenburg.
History
Initially the station flourished – you could board a direct train to Paris – but gradually the station lost its important function and became quiet. In 1935, poet F. Bordewijk aptly described the atmosphere in the station as “a corpse above earth, which will often oppressively dominate our dreams”.
In 1939 the curtain fell and the station closed for passenger traffic. The largely abandoned Maliebaan station is still used as a shunting and freight station, and the Lost Goods Office also finds a home in the station.
During the Second World War, the Germans took possession of the Maliebaan station, with the deportation transports of Utrecht Jews as a black page.
After the war it was decided that the Maliebaan station would become the ‘permanent housing’ of the Railway Museum. On November 28, 1953, the time had come, for a quarter of an entrance fee, visitors could visit part of the new museum. In November 1954 the entire museum was ready and the official opening took place. In 2005, the station was returned to its original state and has since served as a monumental entrance building to the renovated Railway Museum.
Maliebaan Station 150 years can be seen for free until November 1, 2024.
