The Miniature Train Museum in Prague

February 9^th, 2024

After the Museum of Fantastic Illusions and the Lego Museum, you’d think that we would have been done for the day.  But to make it a “little kid in a big body” trifecta, we hopped on the subway to go a few stops to the other side of the Vltava River to visit a miniature train museum called “Railway Kingdom”.

A model of Prague:

We purchased our tickets and then had to go down a floor, to the first floor of the museum.  I needed to go to the bathroom, which was yet another floor down, and happened to be the main part of the museum so we ended up starting there.  There were some race car tracks.  The first one required you to turn a steering wheel (with a knob on it) to propel your car as fast as you can around the track.  There were two tracks that intertwined with each other with two cars on each.  I really wanted to race Naomi but there were some small kids with their grandparents using three of the four cars.  We waited for a bit as I drove one car around the track, which was a bit of a workout, but then decided to move on and maybe return to it later.

An extensive wooden train set:

That did not happen…as the next car racetrack we encountered was awesome and I didn’t need to go back!  It was a big track and you used a remote control to steer your car around the circuit.  At first, I misread a sign and thought that only kids were allowed to race the cars.  Re-reading the sign and realizing that there was no age restriction, we walked up the half dozen stairs to the track to see about getting a turn.  There was a young man sitting near a table with a bunch of cars and controllers in disrepair or charging.  It seemed like we had to wait our turn.  Eventually the guy asked a 10-year-old kid if he wouldn’t mind letting us have a go.  Sweet kid, he did.  I told him I’d only do a lap or two but then he left soon after, and I did way more that two laps.  Naomi had a try first and then me.  It took a bit of time to get familiar to the controller, which was a standard remote-control car one, as I’ve never used one.  It was fun!  We were probably there for 20 minutes and I could have stayed much longer…but it was time to see what else was here.

Naomi giving it a go:

Now my go...

Next was the massive model train diorama.  Wow, was it ever impressive.  It was the biggest and most detailed one that I’ve ever seen.  There was so much to look at.  Some parts portrayed areas in the Czech Republic.  We probably spent about an hour working our way around the display as the lighting changed from day to night every 10-15 minutes.  There were so many little scenes to find…like hidden nuggets.  I’ll let you check out the photos to see some of the things I found.

The main miniature train display...look how massive this is...do you see the people on the other side?!?

So detailed...

Nice castle:

Looks like a crocodile has come out of the sewers:

Trains running near a castle:

A physical fitness

Not sure what's going on here...looks like a party in a tracked military vehicle.  That woman looks like she might fall off of it soon.

A plane crash...

A cemetery, with one black coffin yet to be buried.

A dinosaur-themed park:

Night time setting in...

Some evening show with a live singer:

A woman and a man climbing a chimney.  Some Czechs later told us it was a scene from some movie.

A glider-port:

A military exercise going on:

People protesting the logging of trees...seems they were a bit late.

This is a regular beach on the left, and a nudist one on the right...separated by a fence.  Pretty funny.

A miniature golf course...looks pretty lame though.

Naomi checking out the action.

The colorful tower is the Petrin Tower in Prague, which we happened to visit the next day.

A little bit of action going on...

Love this one...a jumper on the bridge with the firemen below ready to catch him.

A busy scene, even with a hot air balloon about to take off.

Some people camping.  There was a bear on the hill nearby.

Speaking of bears, here are six bears on bicycles!

Love it!

And a dog having a good time in a side-car of a motorbike.

Look at the size of it!

This is Prague's train station:

FIRE, FIRE!!!

On the left you can see a hang glider taking off (the red and blue stripes).

You can see him diving his hang glider in the middle of the picture.

I could have spent another hour looking at all of this...

By the time we had finished racing cars and checking out the massive miniature train exhibition, we hardly had any energy or time left to look at some of the other displays, which included a portion of a life-sized tram (which are popular in Prague).  We were “trained” out. 

After the trains, we sat down for a late lunch in a pizzeria restaurant and then headed back to the hotel.  That evening we met up with some of Naomi’s work colleagues.  She works for SAP, a large international software company, and they have an office in Prague.  It was a fun evening with some dinner and drinks. 

A Friday night with Naomi's co-workers:

Naomi's strange two colored beer:

What a day!