On my final day in Shanghai, I decided to do some more sightseeing before taking my overnight train back to Hong Kong. Being a train nerd the Shanghai Metro museum caught my eye, dedicated to Shanghai’s rail transit system, and I made my way to its Pudong venue after breakfast.
It was thirty renminbi for an adult ticket and for Chinese museums it was a much smaller than usual. Exhibits included former metro rail carriages and driver compartments. Interestingly in the historical background display the museum acknowledges the work of British rail engineers, the UK is the birthplace of railways after all.
There were some interactive displays aimed at the children, but the the most interesting exhibit for me was the tunnelling shield, which was used to drill the tunnels. This was based on a machine going all the way back to the early nineteenth century that was developed by Marc Brunel, father of Islambard. It was the first time I had seen such a machine.
One of the more interesting interactive displays was the points machine where you controlled the rail points to redirect the trains and hopefully avoid collisions. The children there that day enjoyed playing with that. Another interactive that children enjoyed was the driver simulator.
Although not a very big museum it was a good museum for both nerd and rest of the family.
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| tunnelling shield |
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| Interactive points exhibit |
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| Driver's cab simulator |
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