Dream Transport Hall and the Model Railway
Opened 2015
The fourth floor transport hall, opened in July twenty fifteen as Dream Transport, is the successor to the museum's original transport and civilisation gallery, and its most loved corner is the model railway. Behind glass, a large layout in HO scale runs steam locomotives, freight wagons and a white high speed train through a landscape of brick warehouses, level crossings and tiny figures, and a second layout in N scale recreates Taiwanese scenery with local trains. Children press their noses to the glass while the trains loop past; adults tend to linger longer than they planned.
Around the layouts the hall tells the story of how people and goods move around Taiwan. Displays cover the island's railway history from the Japanese built lines to the high speed rail, road and harbour engineering, the Kaohsiung mass rapid transit system, and the physics of wheels, engines and aerodynamics. You can sit in vehicle cabs, try driving simulators and watch a wall of screens that turns a ride along the coast into a virtual journey. Look closely at the layout details: the overhead catenary poles, the cement mixer truck at the crossing and the little motorcyclist waiting for the train to pass are all hand finished.
Model railways have a long tradition in science museums because they make systems visible: signalling, timetables and gradients all become something you can watch. The layouts here are maintained by staff and volunteers and the trains are run at set times, so check the schedule at the hall entrance. The fourth floor also has an earthquake experience room and the textile and health halls, so it makes a natural half day on its own.
Did You Know? The HO scale layout mixes Taiwanese and European rolling stock, so you may spot a German express train sharing the tracks with a black steam engine.
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