Korail opens exhibition on century of train food culture

A unique exhibition evoking memories of train snack carts and onboard meals opens Sunday to mark Railroad Day.

Korea Railroad Corporation (Korail) announced Friday that the Railway Museum in Uiwang will host a special exhibition titled "Rolling Table: Food Culture on the Train" through Nov. 29.

The exhibition traces more than 120 years of railway food history, from Korea's first Gyeongbu Line dining car, which entered service in 1908, to the vending machines found on today's KTX trains.

The show unfolds primarily through photographs and video, depicting the dining cars, snack bars, food carts, era-specific dosirak and popular snacks that defined train food culture across the decades.

Particularly notable is a full-scale replica of the snack cart once pushed through the aisles of Saemaul and Mugunghwa trains by vendors. A large-screen video also recreates the textures of classic train snacks — squid and cider among them — in three-dimensional detail.

On summer holiday weekends (July 28 through Aug. 25), the museum will run a hands-on program called "My Own Train Cart" twice daily, letting children fill a miniature cart with food-shaped play pieces — a special experience aimed at families.

Guided exhibition tours will be offered twice daily on weekdays and four times daily on weekends to help visitors better understand the displays.

The museum is open from 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. and is closed every Monday. Further details are available on the Railway Museum's website.

Bae Eun-seon, director of the Korail Railway Museum, said the exhibition aims to reexamine the historical value of railway culture in everyday life on the occasion of Railroad Day. "We hope it will stir a sense of warm nostalgia in adults, while giving children a meaningful opportunity to share in the past — a space where generations can connect," he said.