Guide
The Tülomsaş Museum belongs to Türkiye Lokomotif ve Motor Sanayi A.Ş., the locomotive and engine works that has been part of Eskişehir's industrial story since 1894. Two machines built here are the reason to visit, and the museum is essentially their home.
The first is Devrim, the first car made in Türkiye. In June 1961 some twenty managers and engineers from the State Railways' factories and traction offices were summoned to a meeting in Ankara and read a letter from the Ministry of Transport: the railways had been given the task of developing a car to meet the army's need for a road saloon, with 1,400,000 lira allocated and a deadline of 29 October 1961 — four and a half months. Almost nobody in the country believed a car or an engine could be built here at all. On the morning of that date the car was driven, on its own wheels and under the power of an engine also made in Türkiye, to the front of the Grand National Assembly and presented to President Cemal Gürsel, its bodywork not quite smooth. Devrim then carried the president to Anıtkabir and joined the parade at the Hippodrome. It weighs 1,250 kg and its speedometer reads to 140 km/h.
The second is Karakurt, the first Turkish steam locomotive. The story the museum tells begins on 5 April 1957, when Prime Minister Adnan Menderes visited the State Railways traction workshop in Eskişehir the day after opening the cement factory at Çukurhisar. He toured the plant and its apprentice school, then rode one of the miniature locomotives — Mehmetçik and Efe — built to run that year in Ankara's Gençlik Parkı, liked it, and asked whether they could build him a full-sized one. In 1958 the workshop was reorganised as the Eskişehir Railway Factory with that aim, and in 1961 Karakurt raised steam: 1,915 horsepower, 97 tonnes, capable of 70 km/h.
The museum also gives space to Behiç Erkin (1876-1961), the founder and first general manager of the State Railways, known as the father of the railways, who played a significant part in the Çanakkale campaign and the War of Independence and was honoured for it with the Grand National Assembly's commendation and the Medal of Independence.
