The International Steam Pages


The Estonian Railway Museum at Haapsalu, 2013

The official website of the museum is http://www.jaam.ee (link broken 5th April 2019) - it's not the most easy to navigate that I've encountered, the ENG button doesn't help greatly but if you click the Sisupuu / Sitemap button then it does get a little easier!


The pictures were taken by Dmitry Kolesnikov on 19th April 2013 and I have added the text gleaned from web sources with some help from 'our man in Moscow', Harvey Smith.

The museum was opened in 1997 and occupies the former Haapsalu station (the line from Keila was formally closed in 1995). The ornate station buildings were constructed between 1905 and 1907 when the country was part of Imperial Russia are said to have been built for a visit from the Tsar to this Baltic Sea resort town which never happened.  The museum's website states that the it is open from 10.00 to 18.00 from Wednesday to Sunday all year round, there is a charge of 2 Euros for the indoor exhibits 

A brief description of the development of the museum site is given here http://www.haapsalu.ee/index.php?lk=270&show=373 (link dead by April 2015) and the museum's own website has a more detailed history of the railway here (in Estonian but readily translatable) here http://www.jaam.ee/?cat=4&lang=et (link broken 5th April 2019).

This is the terminal building which houses the small exhibits:

This is the 200m long platform:

Necessarily most of the major rolling stock exhibits are of Soviet Russian origin. This is L 1646 (information available on http://www.jaam.ee/?p=100&lang=et (link broken 5th April 2019)

This is Su 252-94:

Kriegslok TE 52.3368 is a wartime 'trophy'.

I have been unable to find out much information about the 'modern traction' exhibits, I cannot see a number for the railcar (it used to carry 2303 before repainting) and  the locomotive is TEP60- 0924, a type widely distributed in the former Soviet Union. There are also a number of items of other rolling stock present.

Many thanks to Dmitry for the pictures:


Not shown by Dmitry are two former steam cranes which are shown on our East European Cranes page.


Rob Dickinson

Email: webmaster@internationalsteam.co.uk