Arend under Steam

Activity: Event
Date: 18 Apr 2020 t-m 25 Oct 2020
Age: Children ages 4+, Adults

Each year, from April through October, the very first steam locomotive in the Netherlands, De Arend, is fired up! This jewel of the museum's collection is normally on display in the permanent exhibition, but on the dates below, the doors are thrown open and De Arend chugs its way outside. In the earliest days of the Dutch railway, the trains ran on broad-gauge track. Today, there is still a little section of broad-gauge track to be seen at the Railway Museum. De Arend drives on this track during the ‘De Arend under Steam’ demonstrations.

De Arend pulled the first Dutch train.
On 20 September 1839, the Netherland’s first train pulled away from the d’Eenhonderd Roe station on the outskirts of Amsterdam. The trip lasted just under 30 minutes and was a great success.

Replica
The Arend you see in the Railway Museum is a replica. A brass plaque mounted on the locomotive gives it away: 1938. The real De Arend locomotive was scrapped in 1857 when it was no longer needed. At the time, no one had any idea of its potential historical value.

De Arend is never operated in the winter months. Why not?
Low temperatures are not good for De Arend’s boiler. Instead, the locomotive undergoes an extensive tune-up during the colder part of the year: everything is cleaned thoroughly and minor repairs are carried out.

Dates on which De Arend will be fired up in 2023 (all dates subject to change)
15 & 16 April
13 & 14 May
17 & 18 June
15 & 16 July
19 & 20 August
16 & 17 September
7 & 8 october
(De Arend is not operated in winter)

Arend under Steam

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