Museu Nacional Ferroviário

Entroncamento exists because of the railway - the name means junction, and the town grew from nothing in the 1860s where the northern and eastern lines met, built around locomotive workshops and sheds. The national railway museum opened there in 2015, on 18 May, in those workshops - a first exhibition area had opened in 2007 - and it has the space to show whole trains rather than photographs of them: steam locomotives from the 1870s onward, electric and diesel units, the royal train carriages built for Carlos I and Amélia with their saloons and marquetry, mail and dining cars, and the presidential carriage. There is a working turntable, a signalling collection, uniforms, tickets, clocks and station equipment, and demonstrations on some days. It matters more than a hobbyist collection because the railway is what tied the country together in the nineteenth century, and Entroncamento is where that is legible.

What to look for

• The royal carriages - saloons built for Carlos I and Amélia, with the presidential car.
• The locomotives - steam from the 1870s through diesel and electric units.
• The turntable - a working example in the original workshop yard.
• The town - a settlement that exists only because two railway lines met.

When to go

Year-round. Two to three hours. Closed Mondays. Demonstration days with the turntable and steam are scheduled - check before travelling.

Good to know

Entroncamento is an ordinary railway town with little else. Some rolling stock is outdoors and exposed to weather. Interior access to carriages is limited. Labelling is fuller in Portuguese.

Nearby

Tomar and its convent are north; Santarém is south-west.

Key facts