Rail, Transportation museums
 

Where are the best railroad and other transportation museums in the USA? I know about Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn and know the Smithsonian has some airplanes - I'll look this up on the web -- but what about other ones, especially for trains?

Thanks

BAK

B&O in Baltimore just reopened after extensive damage to the historic roundhouse in a snowstorm a few years ago. It should be the best railway museum in the country.

Steamtown USA in Scranton, PA has lots of steam engines, and excursion train.

Union Pacific has one in Council Bluff, IA, though I've not been there.

Those are main railroad museums, but there are also other sites you can go as a train enthusiast, like Horseshoe Curve near Altoona, PA; the Rochelle Railway Park in Illinois (lots of trains pass through a diamond there); Tehachapi Loop in California; etc... And then there are scenic railroads like Durango & Silverton, or Cumbres & Toltec in CO; or Mount Washington Cog Railway in NH.

I'd say those are the most interesting places to go as a railfan.

There's also a wonderful one in Perris, California, and a small one in Travel Town, in Griffith Park, Los Angeles

The two best train museums I've been to, both of which are equal in my mind, are the B&O Museum in the old B&O roundhouse in Baltimore and the California State Railway Museum in Oldtown Sacramento. They are very different but both are superb. In addition to the museum, both have research libraries as well but I believe you have to have prior approval to visit or use that part.

In the second tier, but still quite good is the railway museum in Golden, Colorado. I don't remember it's name but it is huge. I also like the museum at the Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railway in Durango, especially if you are there during Railfair and can take guided tours of the working roundhouse and yards. I haven't spent as much time as I would like in the Jamestown State Historic Park in California's gold country but it looked from a brief visit like it would also be worthwhile.

"I...know the Smithsonian has some airplanes". If you are talking about the Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC, that's a bit like saying Bill Gates has some money. Even before they opened the Annex, which I have not yet seen, you could spend days there and not see everything there is to see.

The Pima Air Museum in Tucson, the Air Force Museum on the grounds of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, and the Air Force Museum at Hill Air Force Base in Ogden, Utah are also favorites of mine. Both of the ones on Air Force bases are open to the public. Smaller but still interesting is the aviation museum in Fairbanks, Alaska that concentrates on Alaska bush flying and Alaska air carriers.

I hope this helps.

Thanks to you all.

BAK

The Railroad Museum of Pa. at Strasburg has an extensive collection of locomotives and cars that were used on the Penn RR. It is adjacent to, but separate from, the Strasburg RR which runs steam train trips. www.rrmuseumpa.org

Considering your interest in railroad museums, you'll want to become familiar with the photographs of O. Winston Link if you aren't already. He is most famous for photographing the last Norfolk and Western steam locomotives from 1955 to 1960.

The largest single collection of his photographs are at the O. Winston Link museum in Roanoke, VA, opened just this year in a former Norfolk and Western Railroad station. http://www.linkmuseum.org/index.html

The Antique Automobile Club of America has a fine, relatively-new museum in Hershey, PA.

And we mustn't forget the new Smithsonian Air and Space Museum adjunct out at Dulles Airport in VA. It means a double-dose for us aviation buffs when we're in the DC area!

We enjoyed the Cole Transportation Museum in Bangor, Maine. It might not be as large as the ones mentioned here but it may be unique for the amount of logging equipment. The Lombard Log Hauler looks (to me) like a steam engine but was used in the woods to haul out logs. The Cole also has some regular railroad items. Visiting the Cole with my 75+ FIL was a treat since he was familiar with a lot of the equipment and was inspired to tell stories of the time he ...

You might take a look at the Illinois Railroad Museum, located in the NW boonies about two hours driving time from Chicago. See www.irm.org For airplanes, I can remember stopping at the Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome along the Hudson River in New York state with my dad in the early 50's. Go to their website at www.oldrhinebeck.org

We visited 3 transportation museums last summer. The NYC transit museum in Brooklyn (mostly subways), trolly museum in Kennebunkport, ME, and the Owl's Head Transportation museum (near Camden, ME) which is planes and cars.

THe museum in Ogden, UT is a good train/car museum. THe car museum in Reno is excellent.

I thought the cable car museum in San Francisco was fascinating. I was there so long ago on one of my first visits to SF but I'll bet it's still open. You get to see the real works, the actual cogs and cables that keep things moving. Anybody else know about it?

There is a streetcar collection at the National Trolley Museum in Washington D.C.

http://www.dctrolley.org/coll.htm

There is even a car from your hometown, BAK (Toronto?).

If you wanted to venture outside the USA, the Swiss Transportation Museum in Lucerne, Switz. is spectacular!

The NY Transit Muesum in Brooklyn heights is very cool.

Also In Chicago the Muesum of Science and Idustry has tons of Railroad stuff.
They have a GIANT model railroad depcitiing the passage from Chicago to Seattle complete with Scale size versions of both towns and many things in between. (including a 30ft high sears tower) . They also have the Zepher train on display - one of the first Hih speed bullet trains. As well as an entire WWII german submarine (which you can board) . They also have much automobile,airplane parahanilia and a whole section on Spece travel.
http://www.msichicago.org/

I forgot about the Cable Car museum in SF - we went 2 years ago - it is really fascinating to see the big cables.

A lot of good suggestions here, but none even holds a candle to the NYC Transit Museum. Really.