The first preposition for founding the Museum was given by the former director of Railway traffic school in Belgrade, Franjo Repic, in 1931. The preposition wasn´t adopted during that year, not even on the occasion of 50th anniversary of the opening of railway line Belgrade-Nis celebration, when the great railway exhibition was prepared in April, 1934, on Tasmajdan in Belgrade.

Preparations for the 100th anniversary of railways on the Ex Yugoslavia territory began in 1949 by preparing the exhibition named “Hundred Years of Railways in Yugoslavia” in 7 great halls of the Modern Gallery in the Tivoli Park in Ljubljana. After the exhibition had been finished, the exhibition setting was preserved and used as basis for the Railway Museum founding.

The Museum was part of the Ministry of Railways from February 1, 1950, when it was founded, until 1961. After the Bureau of newspaper publishing and marketing activities JZ was founded, it became part of the Bureau, which was renamed in 1922 in Zelnid d.o.o. It was its integral part until 2002, when it came under the auspice of the Director General´s Office of “ZTP Belgrade”.

Since 2010 the Museum has become organizational unit of Media Center of Public Enterprise “Serbian Railways”, today Joint Stock Company “Serbian Railways”.