Land 1, the Great Discovery

Welcome to land 1, the Great Discovery! A land full of soot and steam. Your journey starts in a lift that not only takes you down 150 metres, but also takes you back to the year 1800. The first engine driver in the Netherlands, John Middlemiss, is your guide on a journey that starts in a mineshaft. This is where it all began. This is where the steam engine to pump the groundwater out of the mineshafts was discovered. Can you smell the coal and the dank mine air yet?

On your journey you pass through an English mining village, where you can take a discrete look through the damp windows of the home of George Stephenson. Look, there’s a model of the world-famous steam locomotive, The Rocket, from 1829. His design!

In the drawing office of Michael Longridge, the designer of the Arend (the Eagle) steam locomotive, you strike it lucky: Longridge has just popped out, so you have time for a look around. But watch out, Longridge does have mice about.

In Soeders’ workshop they are hard at work on the Arend’s carriages. You have now reached the Netherlands. The workshop is filled with the smell of new wood.

On leaving the workshop you come into a square. And there it is: the Arend. The first steam locomotive in the Netherlands. It stands there gleaming, on the lavishly decorated platform of Eenhonderd Roe Station on the outskirts of Amsterdam, about to make its first journey. Listen carefully and you can hear the fanfare and the enthusiastic public.