In honor of Amtrak’s 50th anniversary this year, all of the Museum’s former Amtrak equipment pieces are currently decorated with ribbons and numbered signs. When you see one of the numbered signs, you can follow a written guide to learn some fun facts and information......
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The Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania will join museums nationwide in the Blue Star Museums initiative, a program which provides free admission to currently-serving U. S. military personnel and their families this summer. The 2021 program will begin on Armed Forces Day, Saturday, May 15, 2021......
The Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania marked Charter Day in 2021, the 340th birthday of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, with this series of five short videos. Each video, filmed and produced by Museum staff, highlights some of the interesting artifacts, exhibits, historic locomotives and rolling stock......
Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania collections manager Dodie Robbins shares the highlights from a 2014 exhibit on railroad dining. Watch the video. At the dawn of the railroad age, railroads were only concerned with basic transportation. Little consideration was given to hungry passengers. They would have......
Our mission, and our passion, is to save the historic trains and educate the public about the important heritage of railroading. We have endeavored to do so since our inception in 1983, even during the many challenges facing us today. If you have already contributed......
During this Halloween season, Daniel Sohn shares a railroad ghost story from the October issue of Milepost, the Friends of the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania’s membership magazine. A Railroad Ghost Story...
As a part of the Bureau of Historic Sites & Museums’ “21st Century Museums” initiative, the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania has been working with its fellow historic sites and museums to broaden the scope and the relevance of our interpretation and to make all visitors......
The Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania is pleased to announce George Swartz as volunteer of the year for 2020. George was recently selected by the Friends of the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania’s board of directors from among the Museum’s corps of more than 150 active volunteers......
The fall collegiate football bouts between the United States Army’s cadets of West Point versus the United States Navy’s midshipmen of the Naval Academy date back to 1890. Another tradition which went hand in hand with this one for decades started in 1936. That year,......
This year marks the 20th anniversary of a very special event at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania: Trains & Troops. “Trains & Troops is a tribute to the men and women of the U. S. Armed Forces, American railroads and all those who served, and......
The Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania hosts the family friendly event, Model Railroading Days, on Saturday, August 17 and Sunday, August 18, 2019. Watch operating model trains in action and static displays from 11 groups including the Baltimore Area American Flyer Club, Lebanon Valley Rail, Lower......
The Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania is currently one of several test sites within the Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission (PHMC) for AIRA, the new smartphone app that visitors with limited vision can download and use at the Museum. What precisely is AIRA? AIRA is a......
Since it departed the William H. Gray III 30th Street Station in Philadelphia earlier this year, there’s been a lot of flap about Amtrak’s split-flip arrivals and departures board. Now, the historic Solari board, named for its Italian manufacturer, is on exhibit at the Railroad......
As the Pennsylvania Railroad embarked on its ambitious electrification project in the 1930s, it continued to develop and test new locomotive designs. The goal was to produce a new electric locomotive capable of pulling heavy passenger trains at speeds of up to 100 mph. The......
This month’s pop-up display, in Rolling Stock, Hall, of interesting Museum collections centers around vacation destinations and the railroad souvenirs passengers would bring home with them. One traveling essential: a men’s toilet kit. Souvenirs from the Switchback Railroad in Mauch Chunk (now Jim Thorpe), Pennsylvania......
In honor of the new U. S. Postal Service stamps commemorating the 150th anniversary of the transcontinental railroad, the spotlight on collections this month is on the Railway Postal Service. You’ll find a pop-up display in at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania’s Rolling Stock Hall,......
The Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania will join museums nationwide again this summer in the tenth annual Blue Star Museums program, which provides free admission to our nation’s active duty personnel and their families. The 2019 program will begin earlier than in past years, launching on......
April in the United States marks the opening of baseball season, for both major and minor league teams. So what, you may ask, does baseball have to do with railroading? Throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries, many railroads formed athletic associations for their......
Here’s the latest from the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania library and archives! Since November 2018, roughly 17,500 watermarked thumbnail images have been uploaded to their corresponding entries on our archival search engine. This brings the total images now visible online to about 120,000, less than......
The Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania is pleased to announce William “Bill” Cole as volunteer of the year for 2019. Bill was selected by the Friends of the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania’s board of directors from among the Museum’s corps of more than 150 active volunteers......
The Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania recently bid a fond farewell to our historic Nickel Plate Road steam locomotive No. 757, the Berkshire. The enormous 75-year-old engine is now under the ownership of the Mad River & NKP Railroad Museum in Bellevue, Ohio. No. 757 was......
About 65 years ago, on Thursday, March 18, 1954, from 5:00 to 8:00 p.m., there was an “extra special baked ham supper” at the Lancaster Station. The Pennsylvania Railroad Women’s Aid Society would often hold fundraiser dinners like this one to fulfill their charitable mission......
Soon, the Solari board, Amtrak’s split-flip arrivals and departures board from William H. Gray III 30th Street Station in Philadelphia, will be on exhibit at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania. It’s in storage now, while we build a base on which to safely display it.......