In the early 1960s, Jean-Mathis Horrenberger, a textile manufacturer with a passion for railways, had the idea of creating a train museum in Mulhouse. Once his project was accepted by the competent authorities (city, ministry, SNCF, etc.), he developed the collection of rolling stock with Michel Doerr. The museum opened to the public in 1971, first on the site of the former Mulhouse Nord steam depot, then in its current premises in Dornach. Renamed Cité du Train in 2005, then Cité du Train-Patrimoine SNCF in 2018, the museum has become the largest railway museum in Europe.