If you could recommend one railroad museum for a friend to visit where would it be?
Like a LAYS Potato Chip, You can’t eat just one!
My two favorites to go to would be:
Stateside:
Steamtown
B&O Museum in Baltimore
England (UK)
The National Railroad Museum in York
http://www.nrm.org.uk/home/home.asp
But…I would be re-miss if I didn’t at least plug my local Museum,
R&GV Railroad Museum
http://www.rgvrrm.org/index.htm
It’s a fun place to go, very grass roots, very nice volunteers.
Chris
I like the:
Pennsylvania State Railroad Museum in Strasburg
And will second:
The B&O Museum in Baltimore.
Nick
The Illinois railroad museum would be my choice.
I’ll put a third in for the B&O amazing place also if you are a steam famatic you have to see Steam Town. if ever you are in Quebec though take some time and go through tthe Canadian Railway Herritage Museum in Delson ( just outside of Montreal )
I would be remiss if I didnt mention the museum I belong to, the Halton County Radial Railway in Milton Ontario
We also have links to the sites of other ARM museums on our website as well.[8D]
Rob
Well, I haven’t been to the B&O or Steamtown, so I can’t compare to them. (I hope to visit soon.) The better ones I’ve visited are the Illinois Railway Museum and the California State Railway Museum in Sacramento. Both are excellent. Illinois has a whole lot of equipment with some operating. California is very much more like a professional museum with nice displays but operating equipment is limited. I believe the California museum is mostly state funded and staffed while the Illinois museum is mostly volunteer staffed and funded with admission and donations.
Steam Town
Strausburg
Altoona Railroaders museaum PA use to be nice but they took 50% of there stock out and its just boring anymore,
One of my personal favorites is The San Diego Model Train Museum. One: because I’m from San Diego, and two: because 4 very large layouts that are amazing.
The Museum of Transport in St. Louis http://www.museumoftransport.org/ and the Illiois museum in Union
Hi, Jack
I see you are in Bucks County , Pa.
I’m sure you have been to Steamtown and to the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania at Strasburg. Can you compare these two places with any other museums around the country? I’m very impressed with, and happy to spend the day at, both Strasburg or Scranton. But, I’ve never been to any other large railroad museum.
Thanks
Greg
We’ve got the last AC! California State Railroad Museum here in Sacramento.
Have to put in another vote for Steamtown. Nothing like the smell of coal smoke and hot valve oil. Throw in a compound air pump and open cylinder cocks and you have reached Nirvana.[:D]
Of course my biased view is towards the Illinois Railway Museum www.irm.org having been a member for nearly 30 years.
Can’t forget Mid-Continent in North Freedom if you are in the Wisconsin Dells area.
Tom.
We’re family members of both IRM mentioned previously, and the Hoosier Valley Railroad Museum (about 2 hrs SE of Chicago) /http://hvrm.railfan.net
IRM is fantastic, on special weekends you can ride a huge variety of trains. Otherwise, you can ride plenty and it’s rarely crowded. I would suggest making it for Diesel Days or Railfan weekends - they pull out all the equipment. HVRM is smallish, in Northern Indiana, but they have a couple of nice rides. My 8-year old has had birthday parties on the caboose for 4 yrs. now.
I haven’t seen Cass Scenic mentioned. It’s on my list of places to visit before I die.
jeff
I’ve been to the museums in Strasburg, Altoona, and Baltimore. All are pretty good. One thing I liked about each, is that you can sometimes do a little railfanning from museum grounds. At Strasburg, sometimes you can catch Amtrak trains when the run-around move is being made at Paradise, PA. Altoona’s museum is right along the NS main line. It’s pretty open, and there are walkways over the tracks. If you like big steam, check out the B&O museum–they have quite a few steam engines on display. I haven’t been there since the roof collapse though.
I’ve been to Stasburg and it is outstanding. They have done a good job of restoring their equipment. Too often railroad museums become nothing more than junk yards. They take in old equipment but don’t have the funds or the manpower to refurbish it. Also, the Strasburg museum runs a short steam powered excursion. It was a clean burning engine so I’m assuming it was either anthracite coal or oil burning.
Duluth Minnesota, small but in a wonderfully out of the way place and they have a Yellowstone that runs, though it does not move. It is suspended a little over the track, and away it goes. Best place to study all those rods and levers. You can also go into the cab. The rest of the stuff is nice as well, including a street car ride.
Steamtown - Scranton, PA. Wish it were closer. Gotta make it to Strausburg sometime.
Tom
In order-- Sacramento, Steam Town, B&O in Baltimore, Strasburg. All are very close and excellent, and each have there own personality. Can’t go wrong with these.
Hal
I’ve been to the Strasburg RR and the Pennsylvania State RR museum in Strasburg, PA. There are photo essays of both on my website. They have a model train museum there which is quite good and the Choo-Choo Barn. You can’t miss that!
This summer I hope to get to Altoona and see Horseshoe Curve and maybe Steamtown too. We’ll see.
Can I pick three of the above?
York Railway museum
Canadian Railway Museum in Delson, Quebec
And Steamtown