ABC rijtuig

Teaching model of ABC coach, Dutch East Indies railway

The oldest model coach in the Railway Museum’s collection is a teak model of a carriage made for the Dutch East Indies railway at a 1:5 scale. This model was built in 1882 in the Buitenzorg Workshop of the Indonesian national railway company, which employed both Javanese and Dutch personnel. The coach has been reproduced in minute detail and has many realistic features such as working door latches and shutters that can be pulled up and down. The coach has three compartments. The 1st and 2nd-class areas are much more luxuriously furnished than the 3rd-class coach. Travelling in the first two classes was therefore much more expensive. The 3rd-class coach served as a ladies’ compartment. Women travelling alone could sit here if they preferred not to share a compartment with male strangers. The coach is equipped with a toilet, baggage nets and balconies on the ends. The roof and ceiling of the 1st and 2nd-class coaches have a ‘box’ with louvre gratings added on top to provide extra ventilation.