Merkur Museum

During our holiday in the Czech Republic we visited the Merkur museum in Police nad Metuji. We had to drive for two hours through the Giant's mountains and the Eagle's mountains through very small villages to arrive in a small industrial town close to the Polish border. The museum itself is situated on a park like square a few hundred meters from the central town square.

The building appears to be an old school building. Most of the museum is devoted to the construction sets of Merkur and what you can possible build with them.

Some folke like to build houses.

While others prefer the Valdstein castle.

But an old city hall is also nice.

 

Others build huge pillars that can only fit in the central hall.

But this enormous railway bridge is my favorite. So, large that it couldn't fit in the museum and had to be placed in pieces.

This small truck is quiet fancy as well.

There is also the red monster thing that fits into a complete room. It is a kind of fair ground attraction for a small train that runs through it. A bizarre creation, all made from construction sets.

Fortunately for me, there were also two train rooms with trains running smoothly over the layouts.

The display cabinets in the train rooms held several treasures for me. Below you can see some old pre-war Merkur trains.

Four cabinets had beautiful trains, but due to light reflections, they were difficult to photograph. Below are ETS trains in the back, and old trains in the front that I did not recognise.

 This large cabinet is filled with pre-war Merkur trains.

Another display with old toy trains that I do not recognise, but nice to see.

This display cabinet has modern Merkur trains and all types of prototypes.

On the walls old advertisements and newspaper stories  were displayed. I really liked the old pre-war Merkur ads.

In short, the museum is located in a beautiful mountainous region it has several amazing structures and some beautiful trains. Personally, I would have appreciated a little more explanation regarding the old and peculiar trains.
In the side street next to the museum is the entrance to the Merkur factory.

Of coarse I purchased a small souvenir in the museum shop on my way out. It is a small good shed from Merkur and will fit nicely in my layout. The Czech grandmother in the shop has hardly any stock displayed and most of it locked in cabinets, so I pointed to a few things that I would like to buy and in the end bougth something she had.