The Lokwelt Freilassing is one of the most famous train museums in Germany. During a trip through Bavaria, I had the opportunity to visit the place on a trip through Southeast Bavaria and Austria. Here are my thoughts.
Lokwelt Freilassing – Location & Admission
Freilassing is a German city right at the Austrian border, Northwest of Salzburg, in the Berchtesgadener Land region. The Lokwelt is located in a former train roundhouse located West of Freilassing station. You access the museum from the North of the rail tracks, where there is also a sufficiently large parking lots. You have to cross some (dead?) rails to enter the museum. Freilassing station is also the closest stop of public transport, the museum is a some one kilometre walk away.
The museum is open from Friday to Sunday, 10:00 to 17 hrs. Adult admission is 6 Euro.
Lokwelt Freilassing – The Visit
The Lokwelt is suggestion a round trip through the museum. The longer you walk through the exhibition, the less you might in fact follow it. A significant portion of the train engines in displays have been transferred from the Verkehrszentrum (Traffic Center) of the Deutsches Museum in Munich, one of the most important science and technology museum of Germany.
Even if you are not a rail nerd, you will find a lot of interesting exhibits of a wide range of decades. There are a lot of locomotives, but also wagons and engines in display. I especially enjoyed the “exotic” trains in display, e.g. the steam cogwheel engine used at the Schafbergbahn. Of course exhibits like the 103 class, which has been used in fast long distance travels in Germany for decades, are leading to a lot of memories.
You cannot enter the majority of exhibits, but there are typically platforms and stairs, so that you can have a look into the cockpit of the trains. There are also a lot of signal, wheels and similar technical items.
Special Attractions: Railroad Wheelhouse and Model Trains
Three very different attractions are quite popular among the visitors as well. Regularly, you can have an (operated) twist on the railways wheelhouse of the loco shed. Quite an interesting experience. The museum is additionally driving two model trains. One of them is in LGB size and illustrates a Western-style atmosphere. There is also a model of Freilassing train station, including the shed (which is a quite impressive and large station due to the border crossing to Austria. On some Saturdays in summer, there is also a ridable miniature railway.
Lokwelt Freilassing – Services
The museum is driving quite a nice museum shop. The staff was really kind and helpful during the visit. The museum is naturally very large, so that I felt no issues regarding Covid-19 and the hygienic situation.
Lokwelt Freilassing – My View
The Lokwelt Freilassing is a really interesting place to visit. They have a nice set of engines and other vehicles in display. The price is right as well and the service is fine. Unfortunately, the place is quite at an outer edge of the country, but if you are around at a weekend, spending some 90 minutes in here is definitely a good option to have fun.
Flyctory in Salzburg & Berchtesgadener Land
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German Technical Museums
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