Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania
Entrance to the museum
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| Established | 1975 |
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| Location | Strasburg, Pennsylvania |
| Coordinates | 39°58′57″N 76°9′37″W / 39.98250°N 76.16028°WCoordinates: 39°58′57″N 76°9′37″W / 39.98250°N 76.16028°W |
| Type | Railroad museum |
| Director | Jeffrey Bliemeister |
| Website | rrmuseumpa.org |
The Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania is a railroad museum in Strasburg, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.
The museum is located on the east side of Strasburg along Pennsylvania Route 741. It is administered by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission with the active support of the "Friends of the Railroad Museum."
The museum has more than 100 historic locomotives and railroad cars that chronicle American railroad history. An interactive display allows visitors to "take the throttle" on a simulated run in a real freight locomotive, climb aboard a caboose, inspect a 62-ton locomotive from underneath, view restoration activities via closed-circuit television, enjoy interactive educational programs, and more.
The Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania was created to provide a historical account of railroading in Pennsylvania by preserving rolling stock, artifacts, and archives of railroad companies of the Commonwealth.
The initial display building opened in 1975, featuring an operating turntable from the Reading Company. The original building was roughly 45,000 square feet in size and included an observation bridge leading across Rolling Stock Hall, allowing visitors to see the trains from a bird's eye point of view. In June 1995, a trainshed-like addition opened, doubling the indoor display capacity to 100,000 square feet.
Today, the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania covers 18 acres. This includes a second floor changing-exhibit gallery, which leads onto the observation bridge, an education center, a large library and archives, an administrative building, a Restoration Shop, and an outdoor yard. Rolling Stock Hall and the second floor are both handicapped accessible. The yard is subject to weather closure.
A newly designed entrance and gift shop were opened in June 2007. Some larger or more modern engines and cars are displayed outdoors, but additional construction projects are expected in the future. In the near future, construction will start on a new roundhouse to store some of the larger locomotives.
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