The last Devrim
The only survivor of the four cars built in 1961 in four and a half months, kept in a glass garage and still in running order.
Kurmanbek — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Nedim Ardoğa — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Nedim Ardoğa — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Nedim Ardoğa — CC BY-SA 4.0
On the morning of 29 October 1961 the first car ever built in Turkey rolled about a hundred metres in front of parliament in Ankara, with President Cemal Gürsel on board, and stopped: nobody had filled the tank. It had travelled from Eskişehir by train almost dry, for fear of sparks from the steam locomotive, and the motorcycle escort had swept past the fuel station. Gürsel climbed into the second Devrim and carried on to Anıtkabir, but the next morning's papers all ran the same headline, went 100 metres and broke down, and that is the version that stuck. That car is the Devrim, meaning Revolution, knocked together in this railway works in four and a half months on presidential orders by locomotive engineers who had never built a car. The newspapers mocked it for decades, then the story flipped into a national legend, and the sole surviving Devrim now sits in a glass garage inside this small museum, still in running order. The museum lives inside a working factory that has operated since 1894 under a string of names (TÜRASAŞ is the latest). It opened in March 2018 and was formally registered with the Culture and Tourism Ministry in January 2019. There is an indoor hall and an open yard: the hall holds the Devrim itself with the project files, the 1961 newspapers and the team's story; the yard holds locomotives that came out of these workshops, above all the Karakurt, Turkey's first home-built steam locomotive (also 1961), a 2200-class steam engine, the miniature Mehmetçik locomotive begun in 1956 and a driver's cab from a 24000-class diesel you can stand inside. Only four Devrims were built and just one survives, so the car in front of you is the last of them. Be honest with yourself about time: half an hour covers it, an hour if someone in your party loves trains. Admission is 80 TL, the museum closes on Monday, and because it sits inside an industrial site the building is visited in small groups on an appointment system. Ring or email a day ahead rather than turning up at a shut factory gate. The campus paths are broadly flat, and children tend to enjoy the locomotives in the yard more than the car itself. The location is handy: roughly a kilometre on foot from the high-speed rail station and the TCDD Railway Museum beside it, so pair the two before heading up to Odunpazarı. If cars, trains and the history of Turkish industry leave you cold, it is perfectly reasonable to skip it.
The only survivor of the four cars built in 1961 in four and a half months, kept in a glass garage and still in running order.
Turkey's first home-built steam locomotive, made in these same workshops the same year and run by the state railways for around fifteen years.
The newspaper headlines that mocked the car, and the project files showing how railway engineers took on a job most people said could not be done.
Ahmet Kanatlı Caddesi, TÜRASAŞ railway-works campus, Tepebaşı, Eskişehir 26490
Vecihi Hürkuş Aviation ParkYou can stand under the wing of an F-4 Phantom that once patrolled Turkish skies16 minutes walk4.4
Eskişehir ETİ Archaeology MuseumNot many state archaeology museums carry the name of a biscuit company. Eskişehi17 minutes walk4.4
Contemporary Glass Art MuseumA hundred and twenty-five pieces of blown and cold-worked glass fill three rooms24 minutes walk4.4
Yılmaz Büyükerşen Wax MuseumSome 229 wax figures by the municipality's count, every one of them sculpted by 24 minutes walk4.5
Odunpazarı Modern Museum (OMM)Odunpazarı means 'wood market', and when the Japanese architect Kengo Kuma was a24 minutes walk4.1Probably not as a destination in itself: the visit is half an hour and the story is bigger than the exhibits. But it is about a kilometre from the high-speed rail station and the TCDD Railway Museum, so if you are passing anyway with children who like trains it makes a pleasant add-on, not a special trip.
Not advisable. The museum sits inside a working factory campus and the building is visited in limited groups on an appointment system. Call +90 222 224 00 00 ext. 3554 or email muze.eskisehir@turasas.gov.tr a day ahead, and carry ID or your passport.