Chabówka Railway Open-Air Museum

The Chabówka Railway Rolling Stock Open-Air Museum (Skansen Taboru Kolejowego) is an open-air museum of railway history. It stands on a siding of Chabówka station, on the site of a former engine shed built during the Second World War, and is part of PKP Cargo. The museum's official website calls its collection the largest in Poland: some 90 historic rail vehicles, both standard and narrow gauge, stand on several tracks.

Chabówka station opened on 16 December 1884, and in 1899, when the line to Zakopane began operating, it became a junction. Exhibits were collected from the mid-1980s, as steam locomotives gradually disappeared from regular services. The museum was the initiative of Paweł Zaleski, head of the locomotive depot in Sucha Beskidzka, and on 11 June 1993 the open-air museum welcomed its first visitors. Today several tens of thousands of people from Poland and abroad come here every year.

Chabówka is not only an exhibition but also a working workshop: the facilities for supplying locomotives with coal and water and for cleaning fireboxes have been preserved, and the staff repair steam engines and historic carriages themselves. That is why some of the exhibits still run. Rolling stock from here has appeared in films such as Schindler's List, Katyń, Cold War and many others.

What to see and do

• Steam locomotives — from shunters to mainline engines, including Ol12-7, Ty2, TKt48-191 and TKh49-1. Among the exhibits is the industrial engine TKb-1479, built in Berlin in 1877 — according to Polish Wikipedia, the oldest surviving steam locomotive in Poland.
• Electric and diesel locomotives and draisines, as well as passenger, luggage, mail and goods wagons from various eras.
• Special equipment — snow ploughs (for example a rotary Henschel), railway cranes, semaphores, scales and other track equipment.
• A memorabilia room with documents, plates and small items from everyday railway life.
• Heritage trains. In summer, steam-hauled trains run from Chabówka. In the 2026 season they ran on Sundays and public holidays in July and August, twice a day, on the route Chabówka Skansen — Rabka-Zdrój — Rabka Zaryte — Jordanów, along a section of the Transversal Railway of 1884. Tickets are sold at the museum ticket office or on the train. The museum publishes the next season's timetable on its website.

For children this is one of the best places in the region: you can walk freely among the exhibits and, in summer, see a steam engine in motion. Visiting is self-guided; groups can book a guide on weekdays (about 45 minutes).

Practical information

Getting there. Chabówka lies on the S7/DK47 Kraków–Zakopane road next to Rabka-Zdrój; it is about 40 km by road from Zakopane and roughly 60 km from Kraków. There is a car park by the museum. Chabówka station is on the Kraków–Zakopane railway, so it is easy to arrive by train: the museum gate is a few minutes' walk from the platform.

Opening hours. From 1 October 2026 to 30 April 2027 the museum is open daily from 8:00 to 15:00 (weekdays and weekends alike). From 1 May to 31 August 2027 it is open daily 8:00–18:00, and in September 8:00–17:00.

Tickets (prices from 1 April 2025): standard 25 zł, reduced 20 zł for pupils and students up to 24; children under two free. Holders of the Polish Large Family Card pay 24 and 19 zł. A guide for a group of up to 30 people costs 240 zł (weekdays, by prior booking). Payment on site by card or cash.

Good to know. The site is flat, but there is ballast and rails between the tracks, so comfortable shoes help; a pushchair can get around, though not everywhere easily. Most exhibits stand in the open, so the museum is interesting at any time of year, but it is liveliest in summer when the heritage trains run. The museum also has simple lodgings with 25 beds. Information as of October 2026.

Nearby

About 30 km to the west, in Orava, lies the Orava Ethnographic Park in Zubrzyca Górna. The railway from Chabówka leads to Sucha Beskidzka, home to the Renaissance castle known as the Little Wawel. And if you are heading on to the Tatras, Zakopane offers Krupówki Street and the Tatra Museum.

Official website: skansenchabowka.pl

Photos: Piotr Borowiak, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons; If you are willing to use this photo, please caption it as follows: author:..., CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons; Piotr Borowiak, CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons.