The foundation-stone of the Hungarian Railway Museum was laid on 22 November 1999, on the site of the former Budapest North Depot of the Hungarian State Railways (MÁV). After many months of effort, Europe’s first interactive railway museum opened on 14 July 2000, displaying over a hundred railway vehicles and equipment of varying ages on a site of over 70,000 m2. Fortunately the North Depot’s 1911 roundhouse remained intact and its 34 bays provided an ideal home for the operational vintage fleet. The fleet is comprised of fifty engines, twelve operational and thirty-eight cosmetically restored, plus a wide range of rolling stock: railcars, self-powered rail cars and hand-carts, inspection cars, steam cranes, snow ploughs and other curiosities. The exhibits take visitors through the entire history of the railways from the steam engines of the 1870s to the powerful electric engines of today.