Selçuk Railway Museum

(catch-up Post)

Saturday, 20 October (Part III)

I mentioned in a previous post that Selçuk is mostly a waypoint on our way to nearby places of interest — such as Şirince (post here) and Efes (aka Ephesus; post here).  Today, we actually spent some time in Selçuk.

Our first stop was the Railway Museum — or more accurately, the Çamlık Steam Locomotive Museum.

Engine 3304; a C-h2 type locomotive manufactured by Henschel out of Germany.  The engine entered service in 1918 and worked the Zonguldak line.  It was capable of a max. speed of 50 km/h.

The museum is located on the site of the former train station by the same name.  The station was built in 1866 by the Oriental Railway Company (ORC), a British company that was awarded the concession from the Ottoman government to construct the rail line between İzmir and Aydın.

The former train shed, which contains exhibits, was undergoing restoration work.
thus we were unable to visit it.

While we like trains, I can’t say that we are true aficionados.  For the dyed-in-the-wool train enthusiast, this museum, with its collection of locomotives built in Turkey, as well as other countries around the world, would probably be a treasure trove to explore.  And for them, here’s a link to a pdf guide I found after the fact.

Engine 46244; a 1D1-h2 type engine manufactured by American Locomotive Company.
It entered service in 1942 and worked the Balıkesir Line.  It had a maximum speed of 70 km/h.

So, why go and pay the 5TL ($2.75) per person admission for this museum?  Because we wanted to see one of the private railcars in which Atatürk, the founder of modern Turkey, travelled around the country.  It was sad to see that the interior of a train car that has such historic significance is in need of a good restoration, but we appreciated wandering around it nonetheless.

Saloon 4ufw No1 is one of several train cars built for Atatürk’s private use.

(couldn’t get a decent picture of the bedroom; which is where Mui is sitting in the photo on the left.)

After touring the car, we strolled to the far end of the grounds, stopping frequently to checkout the various locomotives and train cars on display.

The turntable is like a lazy-Susan used to turn railroad rolling stock, usually
locomotives, so that they can be moved back in the direction from which they came.

This is a steam crane I believe.

Sorry, Aylİn; I don’t think this train car is scheduled to go anywhere soon ;-)

Hoping for a cup of tea or other beverage to conclude our visit to the museum, we stopped by the on-site café, but it was closed.  So, we drove into Selçuk and found ourselves a café in the town center instead.  We would have enjoyed some tasty tidbits along with our tea, but we didn’t want to ruin our appetite for the perch mom had stayed behind to prepare for dinner.  Making a promise to ourselves to explore Selçuk the next time we’re in Turkey, we headed home to enjoy the delicious meal that was awaiting us.  (Sorry, forgot to take pictures.)