Danish Railway Museum - Interrail and Wagons-Lits exhibition

‘The Compartment of Dreams’ (‘Drømmenes Kupé’) exhibition is a permanent feature of the Danish Railway Museum (Danmarks Jerbanemuseum) in Odense, the country’s third largest city. The exhibition is centred on two 24-metre long carriages which encapsulate contrasting styles of rail travel. Interrail was aimed at backpackers who were prepared to ‘rough it’, whereas Wagons-Lits appealed to those who had more money to spend and preferred a greater level of comfort. 

Interrail map showing the 1976 journey made by Hanne Møllergård and Lis Routhe.
PHOTOGRAPH BY Ian Lacey

Since 1972 the Interrail scheme has enabled millions of Europeans to travel by train around much of their continent at relatively low cost. A similar Eurail pass has been available to North Americans and other non-European residents even longer, as this was introduced in 1959. Until the late 1990s, both passes were largely the preserve of young budget travellers.

I set off from southern England on three Interrail trips in the 1980s carrying a bulky aluminium-framed rucksack and armed with little more than my passport and ticket, some travellers cheques, a sleeping bag and a couple of changes of clothes. As such, I was excited about exploring this exhibition which highlights what I believe is an influential but frequently overlooked form of youth travel and culture.

A long carriage corridor which will be familiar to many rail travellers.
PHOTOGRAPH BY Ian Lacey

The Interrail carriage is a Danish Railways passenger coach with a corridor running down one side and ten compartments off it, each containing two sets of three seats facing each other. In recent years we have grown accustomed to lighter open-planned carriages with a central aisle and informal seating. In the late 20th century however, these compartments doubled as meeting places and bedrooms, as did the corridors on especially busy trains. Any veteran Interrailer would have spent at least one uncomfortable night wedged in a crowded passageway.

Visitors can enter one of the compartments and, unlike on my Interrail trips, I had the rather confined space to myself. Almost as soon as I sat on one of the brown seats (everything in the carriage seemed to be a shade of brown), I was hit by a familiar musty smell which transported me back to those journeys almost four decades ago. I couldn’t decide whether the smell was genuine or had been cleverly recreated. Perhaps neither and my distant memories were playing tricks on my senses.

Making a nostalgic return to one of the compartments.
PHOTOGRAPH BY Ian Lacey

The other compartments, plus the display cases outside the carriage, are given over to Interrail ephemera from a bygone age. These include a selection of rucksacks, some of which had the Danish flag added in a prominent position. The range of guidebooks, timetables, leaflets and fold-up maps in the exhibition highlight how important these items were for backpackers in the pre-digital era. Nowadays, almost all the information a traveller might need is just a few taps of a smartphone away.

As an oral historian, I was particularly interested in the quotes from a series of interviews which were conducted with Interrailers in 2016. Museum visitors don’t get to hear the actual voices, presumably because the interviews were recorded in Danish, but I enjoyed reading the translated testimonies. In recalling the motivation for her first Interrail trip in 1978 aged 19, Tove Eriksen said, ‘I was out to test the boundaries and try my wings.’ On a more practical note, Susanne Carlsen discovered that the little pots which contained rolls of film ‘were really handy as shot glasses.’

Rucksacks and other Interrail items in one of the compartments.
PHOTOGRAPH BY Ian Lacey

With a feeling of poignancy, I climbed down from the Interrail carriage and made my way across to the blue Wagons-Lits sleeping car. The platform between the carriages is designed to replicate the Gare du Nord in Paris in the early 1970s, a city which was a popular destination for both budget and luxury travellers from Denmark. The idea is to convey how a platform is one of the few places where both types of travellers converged. Wagons-Lits passengers were likely to have headed straight to their pre-arranged accommodation, but Interrailers might have lingered at the station either to try and book a safe place to stay in the city, or to catch another train.

For Danes, the heyday of Wagons-Lits was the mid-1950s which is why much of this half of the exhibition focuses on an earlier era and includes more official materials and fewer firsthand testimonies and personal mementoes. By the 1970s, competition from airlines had led to the company ceasing operations to and from Denmark, although there was a short revival during the following decade.

DSB passenger coach and Wagons-Lits sleeping car.
PHOTOGRAPH BY Ian Lacey

In 1986 Otto Freiesleben and his family travelled from Copenhagen to Venice, a luxurious journey which apparently lived up to their expectations. One of the exhibition images shows Mr Freiesleben comfortably seated in one of the train’s armchairs, dressed in a shirt and tie. This is in marked contrast to the images of casually dressed backpackers squashed into compartments and nestling under sleeping bags. Another Wagons-Lits image is of a chef wearing a rather tall toque preparing hot meals in a small but well-appointed kitchen. This is something that we Interrailers could only have dreamt about as we tucked into our bread and cheese.

Visiting and access information

The Museum is easy to find, being located next to Odense’s main railway station in a circular building which was formerly an engine shed. Check the museum’s website for current opening days and times, and ticket prices. Allow about an hour for ‘The Compartment of Dreams’ exhibition or at least two hours if you want to explore the wider museum.

Main entrance to the Danish Railway Museum in Odense.
PHOTOGRAPH BY Ian Lacey

The museum generally is accessible, but exploring the exhibition’s carriages involves negotiating steep steps and narrow corridors and doorways. Contact the museum in advance if you have restricted mobility or other access requirements.

Top tip

Odense is approximately ninety minutes by train from Copenhagen so is possible to visit as a day trip from the capital. As Odense is also the birthplace of Hans Christian Anderson, I would recommend an overnight stay to allow time to visit some of the sites associated with arguably Denmark’s most well-known author.

Acknowledgement and disclosure

Thank you to Anna Back Larsen, Communication Manager at the Danish Railway Museum, for sharing a copy of the exhibition brochure and approving the use of the images which are my own. I paid for my entry ticket.

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Ian Lacey

Ian Lacey is a public historian. He is currently undertaking postgraduate research at Royal Holloway University of London into the experiences of UK travellers who went Interrailing between 1972 and 1997. Ian has worked in the visitor attraction sector for the National Trust at Osterley Park and House, and most recently as Marketing Manager at the Houses of Parliament where he was responsible for promoting tours and visits. Aside from history, Ian’s interests include travel and tourism, accessibility, photography, music, and cricket.

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