New show equipment and technical dark ride upgrade for the Railway Museum

By | December 23, 2020

VENLO, The Netherlands — In dark ride ‘’Stalen Monsters’’, visitors take an adventurous ride through the dark in a vehicle on real train rails. It is one of the most popular and surprising parts of the Railway Museum in Utrecht.

Stalen Monsters in The Railway Museum
The Railway Museum illustrates the vital link between the railways and society at large. The museum preserves and manages railway-related heritage in the Netherlands. Through their stories aimed at a wide audience, they reveal the significance of this heritage in connection with technological and economic development in the past, present and future.

As a cultural organization, the Railway Museum is in the midst of society. They tell their story and manage the collection in a way that is relevant and authentic. They connect the activities to their function as a museum. An upgrade of dark ride Stalen Monsters ensures that the visitor experience is optimized.

15 years ago, The Railway Museum introduced the dark ride named ‘Stalen Monsters’. After all these years, the dark ride is due for a major upgrade. We have been commissioned to make the technology up to date. In addition, we were also asked to renew and optimize the total experience of the dark ride.

‘’In a very short time, we gave our dark ride Stalen Monsters a technical and experience upgrade. The project was a great collaboration between our own Technical Service and the specialists of Lagotronics Projects. The contact was pleasant and Lagotronics Projects clearly understood what was important to us: because we are a museum, we have to work in the immediate vicinity of unique collection items, and it is also important that the show elements are truthful. It was great that Lagotronics understood this very well. Both we and the visitors are very happy with the result!’’ – Jan Bergen, Head of Operation of the Railway Museum.

Technical upgrade
Lagotronics Projects was asked to make the technology up-to-date and in addition to renew and optimize the total experience of the dark ride. The technical equipment, the hardware and software, was considerably outdated. As a result, it was decided to renew the entire show control, audio control and the lighting. The show can be easily operated via a control panel.

All technology has been replaced so that Stalen Monsters is equipped with up-to-date technology and can be operated for decades again!

Optimized visitor experience
In addition to replacing the technology, the equipment in the field of audio, special effects and lighting has also been overhauled. The attic has been partly renovated and provided with a new storyline. In addition, a quiz is integrated. The entrance and exit have also been adjusted to make them more eye-catching.

The entire lighting plan in the ride has been overhauled and Lagotronics Projects used RGB LED lighting. On the one hand, this lighting is very energy efficient and on the other hand great atmospheres can be created with mixing colors.

In order to give the visitors of Stalen Monsters more information about the ride, visitors are provided with information about the ride in an intermediate space. To add an extra dimension to the ride, full color prints have been installed in various spaces and some projections have been implemented.

Overall a very challenging project in which technology and creativity come together to create a very unique and exciting museum experience!