MOROCCO IS ACCELERATING! feature - Alstom

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culture
This DSB Trans-Europ-Express was in operation until 1990.
North Sea
Altona
Viborg
Alborg
Ringkobing
Ahrus
SWED SWEDEN
EN
D E N M A R K
Ribe
Odense
FYN
Copenhagen
Roskilde
Ringsted
Koge
ALS
SJÆLLAND
MØN
Baltic
LOLLAND
Kiel
FALSTER Sea
GERMANY
Hamburg
50 km
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their husbands can play with the children.
We therefore take great care to make
sure everyone really enjoys our collections
and has a good time.”
The museum’s gems
In the middle of the collection stands an
enormous grey and red snowplough from
the 1930s. The room, entirely devoted
to models of ferries, notably ice-breakers,
as well as an identical reconstruction
of a saloon occupied by ladies during
a crossing, offers a striking impression
of the manner in which the Danes travelled
by train between the islands which form
their country long before the opening of
the gigantic bridges and tunnels which link
them today. A series of posters show
these huge concrete and steel structures,
which now enable the crossing of Denmark’s
many straights in minutes instead of hours,
almost without one being aware of it.
A model explains how one of these
engineering feats was accomplished:
the Great Belt Tunnel (Storebælt).
In a further tribute to Danish ingenuity,
the collection offers numerous examples of
their striking innovations. It explains, notably,
how imperial suburban trains were able
to offer mass transport solutions in densely
populated environments. It also exhibits
platform-wagons with twelve terra cotta
demijohns, each a cubic metre, used
for transporting dangerous chemical
products such as acids. If three or four DSB
employees, responsible for inspecting
the track, needed to see our work,
the solution was to take a limousine and
to replace its wheels with those of a rail car…
“Although it had become useless,we left
the steering wheel in place so that it didn’t
disturb the passengers!” remarks
Poul Thestrup.
The Odense museum reminds us that
Denmark has a history of elegant
design and decoration. Three generations
of royal cars are exhibited here as well
as the museum’s star attraction, if we are