What’s your favorite Train Museum?

I haven't seen them all but I really like the Pa. museum. That isn't to say I didn't like the others.

Pennsylvania Railroad is a favorite.  Steamtown is my other favorite. 

Of those I have visited, my top three to date would be:

1. California State Railroad Museum (Sacramento)

2. Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania (Strasburg)

3. B&O Railroad Museum (Baltimore)

My tops are:

Nevada State Railroad Museum, Carson City, Nv. Lots of V&T and a really nice museum. 

Local narrow gauge, steam weekends four times a year, come and watch for

free or minimal charge to ride the steam trains and the Mckeen car all day,

Illinois Railroad Museum at Union, Illinois. Out in the middle of nowhere, but

lots of stuff including a gorgeous restored Zephyr.  Haven't been in 20 years

but it still looks the same online. 

California State Museum in Old Town Sacramento. Amazing and this is the 

Museum Tom Sefton donated his amazing standard gauge collection to. 

Again, I have not been in several years, but there were big plans for this 

museum. 

B&O, Baltimore... great parking lot... i'd like to try tailgating there some day.

Maybe I'm biased since I've been going there since I was little, but the Conneaut Train Museum... My parents took me, now I'm taking my little boys to see the 755

My favorites

1 California State Railroad Museum

2 Colorado Railroad Museum Golden Colorado

3 St Louis Rail Road Museum Kirkwood Missouri

4 B & O Museum Baltimore Md

5 Pennsylvania Museum Strasburg Pa

6 Nevada Museum,Carson City Nv

Steamtown Scranton Pa

Mikey

I've only had the opportunity to visit the PRR museum at Strasburg. From what I've seen of some of the others on the Net. I would have to say it's a HUGE tie with ALL of them at number one. They ALL have GREAT stuff and none of it is the same. What's NOT to LIKE?

Simon likes then all!

I've been to all mentioned above, except Conneaut, and favor the Colorado one in Golden.  I was at the Nevada one years ago, before McKeen car was restored, so need to go back to it.  It was a rusty hulk on back of lot when l saw it.

I have to question the person saying the Mckeen car at the Nevada State Railroad

Museum was a rusting hulk a year ago. I have lived in this area for 20 years

and it has been restored and running for most of them. It definitely was not

a rusting hulk a year ago. Check your facts, sir. 

Think I misread, sorry

My top three are,

1. Railroad Museum of PA (Strasburg)

2. Virginia Museum of Transportation (Roanoke)

3. Norfolk Southern Heritage Museum (NS HQ Norfolk VA)

beardog posted:

Think I misread, sorry

 

You can edit your original post by clicking the blue "Take Action" bottom right and then clicking Edit. Everyone needs a redo now and then!

Simon

I liked the original Edaville, which is long gone. The place is still operating under new ownership, but all the good stuff is gone.
That leaves the Branford Trolley Museum, and the Canadian Railway Museum.

IRM

Rusty

California state in Sacramento

Hands down - National Railway Museum in York, UK.  Could spend hours just in their "warehouse".

Honorable mention to Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania in Strasburg and Illinois Railway Museum in Union.

Love the Toy Train Museum, but I was thinking "real trains".  Haven't been to Sacramento.

Simon Winter posted:

I've only had the opportunity to visit the PRR museum at Strasburg. From what I've seen of some of the others on the Net. I would have to say it's a HUGE tie with ALL of them at number one. They ALL have GREAT stuff and none of it is the same. What's NOT to LIKE?

Simon likes then all!

Umm... Those Museums that Horde and have rusting Hulks only to destroy them years later because it's too much $$ to save them.

Honestly, I haven't been to too many museums to really make a good decision. I do like

IRM

RR memorial Museum in Strasburg, Pa

The B&O RR Museum

The Canadian RR museum in Ottawa

Altoona RR Museum

Oklahoma RR museum

Steamtown

The Readin Co Technical and Historical Society. [They are trying!]

Although I haven't been there in years, I enjoyed the time I spent at the Maine Narrow Gauge Railroad Co. & Museum in Portland, Maine. They have a great collection of narrow gauge locomotives. Very cool. 

Tom 

Umm... Those Museums that Horde and have rusting Hulks only to destroy them years later because it's too much $$ to save them.

Are there other museums or organizations who are ready, willing, and able to take those items off their hands, and restore them immediately? 

One of the treasures that used to be at Edaville was the Flying Yankee. It ended up in the hands of the State of New Hampshire. A Restoration group was formed with plans to get it running as a tourist attraction. I stopped following the progress a while ago. Apparently it is stored somewhere and is not even visible to the general public. Here is an article and their web site: Flying Yankee

Illinois Railway Museum, which is only a short distance away from me. I also like the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania and the California State Railway Museum, as well as the West Coast Heritage Museum up in Squamish, British Columbia, Canada.

My favorite is the one that I am visiting at the given moment.  All RR museums have something to offer, whether it be a massive collection such as IRM or a single car or locomotive on display.  There is always a story to tell.  If you go in with the attitude that you want to discover the story, you will be much more satisfied than if you came to see a bunch of large industrial equipment.  Even the rusting hulks have a story to tell.

Tom

My favorites are:

National Railway Museum York, U.K.

Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania

California State Railroad Museum

B&O Railroad Museum 

Nevada State Railroad Museum

I have visited many others and the names escape me, but I know that I enjoyed them all!

Eric Hofberg

TCA, LCCA

I always wanted to visit UK, Just to Know What Steam Era’s Like. 😍

overlandflyer posted:

B&O, Baltimore... great parking lot... i'd like to try tailgating there some day.

I'm in.  Sounds like a fantastic idea.

My favorite is the Illinois Railroad museum. Huge collection of vintage railroad equipment, including a variety of old passenger car sleepers, diners plus a 7 mile track where they run trains like the Burlington Zephyr. When we were there we caught the demonstration of the mail car pickup of mail bags on the fly. They even allowed us into the mail car to see them put out the hook and witness the process.

Second favorite Tie :  Pennsylvania Railroad Museum Strasburg that has a good amount of restored/repainted equipment indoors but no running trains that you can ride and Steamtown, Scranton, PA. where vintage equipment is all over, train rides are not always long but on trolley days you can take a 10 mile journey.  Lackawanna Station (now a hotel) is close by. You can have lunch there.

Third B & O railroad Museum in Baltimore.  Nice collection, roundhouse, stations and lots of trains indoor and outdoor. Features historical B & O equipment but only a very short train ride.

Penn Station in NY.

Virginia Museum of Transportation; Roanoke, Va. My home town, and the home of the builders of the finest steam locomotives. N&W pride showed on every locomotive that rolled out of East End Shops.

Don't miss out on your opportunity to see the J, A, and Y reunited together again! They will stand toe-to-toe with anything ever built by Lima, Alco, or Baldwin. And they were designed, built, and operated exclusively by the N&W.

1) Pennsylvania Railroad Museum in Strasburg.

2) Virginia museum of transpiration in Roanoke.

3) B&O museum in baltimore

By the way, the John Bull in Strasburg is a replica built for the 1939 world's fair. Still very cool to see.

Roanoke was a disappointment when I was there 10 yrs ago  Spencer was better especially with 611 there. Altoona doesn't have much except, NS.  Strasburg has 3 great attractions  all close together. Every museum is different and I try to take something ay from each one I visit.

Jim,

Many improvements in roanoke since then.  I confess I have not been to Spencer, many people like it a lot.  The 611 was in roanoke last time I was there.

I've noticed that the Mad River & NKP Museum in Bellevue, OH has not been mentioned.  Nice collection of equipment and easy to get around.  They also have an observation platform to watch NS action.

Tom

Tom Densel posted:

I've noticed that the Mad River & NKP Museum in Bellevue, OH has not been mentioned.  Nice collection of equipment and easy to get around.  They also have an observation platform to watch NS action.

Tom

And it's just a short drive to the train park in Fostoria.

MNCW posted:

Although I haven't been there in years, I enjoyed the time I spent at the Maine Narrow Gauge Railroad Co. & Museum in Portland, Maine. They have a great collection of narrow gauge locomotives. Very cool. 

Tom 

Tom,

I was just there about two months ago and was finally able to spend some time in their museum.  They alternate running their diesel and steam engines and will be staying in Portland at least another two (?) years before relocating to Grey, ME.  It's a great place but "smaller" than the others mentioned .

Tomlinson Run Railroad

Ive been to a bunch of them  The ones that stand out are California state in Sacramento and the B&O in Baltimore

About 10 yrs ago(I think) my girl friend & I visited a narrow gauge RR in Maine but not sure where it was. It was nice plus I consider the East Broad Top a museum, too.  Was there often when they they were running and visited the trolley museum too. I enjoy them all, especially the Strasburg and EBT shops. Have heard a lot of good things about California, the B&O and IRM plus Texas and others.

Spencer is a very nice museum.  I visited there this past week for the first time in 16 years.  I was able to ride in the cab of  Beaufort and Morehead #1860 for only $20 and blow the horn several times.  I like the round house a lot.  611 was being worked on while I was there but was later taken outside at the end of the day which I missed.

The Pa. RR museum would be my #1

B & O #2

I was disappointed at Steamtown, expected more and they have a few hard to find engines turning to dust. Va. was nice and some other smaller museum's between here and the east coast. For some reason we don't venture west very often.

Jim

I wonder whether people know that Steamtown is a National Historic Site (park).

I've only been there once. I enjoyed it.

I have not visited that many, so my experience is limited to the Pennsylvania Museum, the B&O museum in Baltimore that I barely remember, Steamtown, The colorado Museum in Golden,  NC museum at Spencer, the Illinois Museum at Union and one in Indiana.    Also I have visited Orbisonia on the EBT many times and Cumbres and Toltec once.   Neither of these are called museums but have a lot of great old equipment.     

Mainly because of personal Interest, I like the following as first choices, Pennsylvania Mus in Strasburg and the EBT at Orbisonia,

The others are all good too, some have the equipment more visible or accessible than others.     I have had a good time on visits to Spencer and a great time visiting the Cumbres & Toltec wandering around their yard and riding.

I was back home again a few weeks ago to Northwest Indiana. Growing up a Hoosier, I am a fan of the Monon. If in Northwest Indiana area checkout the Monon Connection Museum on US 421 a little north of Monon Indiana. I visited again and found that they now have a nice HO layout in a new room addition. Harold, the volunteer curator, is very knowledgeable in the history of the MONON. The museum has a limited amount of rolling stock but just got one of the Henry Flager private cars that will soon be displayed. Great collection of lanterns, signs, and other various railroad items. Whistle Stop Restaurant has good food at fair price. Living in Roanoke Va.,  I  also like the Virginia Transportation Museum and O Winston Link Museum.

Here are a few pics of the Monon Connection Museum, which is a private collection. Link to museum.

I'll add the Railroad Museum of Long Island to the list.  I've only been there once, and it admittedly has nowhere near the amount of real trains on exhibit as museums such as the B&O or the PRR Museum in Strasburg.

BUT: It has the Lionel Visitor's Center Layout that was previously in Michigan, so for toy train fans, that's a great thing to go see.  (This is the Riverhead part of the facility, there is another location in Greenport, I believe from reading the website that there may be more actual trains on display there)

-Dave

California State Railroad Museum, Sacramento.

Gadsden Pacific Division Toy Train Museum in Tucson, AZ.   Non profit. 6000 square ft building with 8 layouts of different gauges.   Outdoor g gauge layout.  Ride on train that goes around the property twice.  Full size Rio Grande caboose.  Free admission although donations are greatly appreciated.  Open house twice a month.  2nd and 4th Sunday of the month from 12:30 to 4:30 from September tomMay.  One of the best toy train museums in the southwest.   Check out Facebook page or website.  

B&O in Baltimore. Walking into the round, round house was wild.

Dick

"Spencer is a very nice museum" by KJSTrains

After reviewing this forum I was surprised that the North Caroline Museum of Transportation has not been listed as a favorite.

Four of us traveled in May 2018 to Spencer NC to be blown away with all the wonderful engines and rolling stock on display.   My favorite was the 37 bay roundhouse, with turntable, full of great engines and trains.  This was the day for their annual train show where I found mostly HO for sale, but I did find some great buys at good prices.  Found several buys not always seen during attending shows in Ohio, KY, and WV.

I encourage the forum members to take a trip to Spencer, just north of Charlotte, NC.

I had forgotten about this one. Railtown 1897 State Historic Park in Jamestown

California. It has an operating roundhouse. Lots of things used in old movies. 

At least one operating Shay that I can remember. And the focal point

for Petticoat Junction. Worth a trip.

beardog posted:

I had forgotten about this one. Railtown 1897 State Historic Park in Jamestown

California. It has an operating roundhouse. Lots of things used in old movies. 

At least one operating Shay that I can remember. And the focal point

for Petticoat Junction. Worth a trip.

Good call.

Yes.  Very much worth a visit!

A really nice operating museum is the Cass Scenic RR in Cass, West Virginia.

National Railroad Museum,  Green Bay, WI.  4017 Union Pacific Big Boy, Pennsylvania GG-! and more.

The National Railroad Museum in Green Bay WI is my pick. The highlights (for me) include a Big Boy, an Aerotrain and the Eisenhower Command Train (can't find that pic). They also have a great collection of drumheads and dinnerware. You can go through their storage sheds walk through all of the stored passenger cars. If you have allergies, I would recommend taking an anti-histamine first. Some of those cars are musty! That said, it's still cool being able to tour them.

Also, when in Green Bay it's worth a visit to the Titletown Brewing Co. It's located in the old C&NW Green Bay station. Great food and great beer such as "The 400", named after the C&NW passenger train. Of course no trip to Green Bay would be complete without seeing Lambeau Field. Go Packers!!

Rob

Nairb Rekab posted:

National Railroad Museum,  Green Bay, WI.  4017 Union Pacific Big Boy, Pennsylvania GG-! and more.

You just beat me to it!!

Also while in Green Bay check out the O Gauge train store at railtycoon.com and HO and N gauge trains at www.enginehouseservices.com

Lots of my favorite train museums mentioned here (B&O, all the Strausburg sites, EBT) but I must say I really enjoyed visiting the NMOT near St Louis, thought it was many many years ago. 

I haven't been to many, but I growing up in the Boston area, we would go to the Seashore Trolley Museum whenever we went camping in Maine (seemed like every summer) so that'll always be a special place for me.

I also got to stop at Steamtown a few years back on the way back from a fraternity convention.  That was a very cool experience for me.  It was on a Sunday morning and snowing so I had the place pretty much to myself.