World 1 The Great Discovery

The Great Discovery (1800 – 1850)  is one of the five "Worlds" within the Railway Museum. This is where it all began.

The journey begins in an elevator that not only takes visitors down 150 meters but also transports them back to the year 1800. The space isn't actually an elevator, but a small simulator decorated as a mine elevator. The first engineer in the Netherlands, John Middlemiss, takes visitors on a journey that begins in a mineshaft. This is where the steam engine was invented to pump groundwater from mine shafts. The journey continues through an English mining village. Here, visitors can admire, among other things, the home of George Stephenson (inventor of the steam locomotive) and De Arend (The Eagle), the first steam locomotive in the Netherlands.