Pioneers of tourism are always eager to visit the most remarkable places in the world, take an unusual selfie, and experience thrilling emotions. After the ruins of the Coliseum, the Eifel Tower, and the Tower of London were visited, a traveler begins longing for more adventures. They become more demanding and set off on a quest looking for places and events that are not in every tourist’s portfolio.
A Chilean city Temuco has never been considered a touristic Mecca. There are no artificial decorations and street seller of souvenirs. People come here for something else, what appeals to real history experts and engineering enthusiasts. The Pablo Neruda National Railway Museum is situated in this city. The purpose of its foundation was the desire of the residents to save and preserve the history of the city’s railway heritage.
The territory where the grand museum exhibits are held now used to belong to a state railway company, and in 2001the ownership was transferred to the city specifically for creating the museum. The official opening took place in 2004. The first showpiece of the museum was a president’s car, given as a gift to the museum by the Chilean president, Ricardo Lagos. You can still find it standing in one of the museum rooms called "The House of Machines." They call this part of the complex the heart of the museum as its exhibition includes locomotives and cars starting from the year 1900. It was the time of glory for steam engines and railway, the time of a train’s signature loud whistles and white smoke. The other rooms of the museum house the La Carbonera coal storage, the La Maestranza repair workshop, and the Art Gallery, a former driving school. A priceless collection of train carriages, including the president carriage Ricardo Lagos, is of great interest.
In the park of the museum, you can see old trains, for instance, an Italian locomotive of 1961 with just four carriages, and an Argentinian one produced in 1975.