The National Railroad Museum is a railroad museum located in Ashwaubenon, Wisconsin, US. Founded in 1956 by community volunteers, the National Railroad Museum is one of the oldest and largest U.S. institutions dedicated to preserving and interpreting the nation's railroad history.
Two years later, a joint resolution of Congress recognized the Museum as the National Railroad Museum. The museum has been a Nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization since 1958.
A museum building houses a wide variety of railroad artifacts, an archive, and photography gallery. A standard gauge track rings the grounds. An 80-foot (24 m) wooden observation tower has views of the Fox River and Green Bay.
As of 2019, the museum was working to raise money to build a roundhouse to surround its current buildings (except the train station) to shelter from the weather the locomotives and cars displayed in the open pavilion.
List of Exhibits[]
- Steam Locomotives:
| Number | Images | Heritage | Type | Builder | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5017 | 
|
Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe | 2-10-4 | Baldwin Locomotive Works | |
| 24 | 
|
Lake Superior & Ishpeming | 2-8-0 | American Locomotive Company | |
| 4496 "Dwight D Eisenhower" | 
|
London & North Eastern Railway, British Railways | 4-6-2 | Doncaster Works | |
| 102 | 
|
Sumter & Choctaw | 2-8-2 | Baldwin Locomotive Works | |
| 101 | 
|
Quarter Master Corps. United States Army, Korean National | 2-8-0 | Baldwin Locomotive Works | |
| 4017 | 
|
Union Pacific | 4-8-8-4 | American Locomotive Company | |
| 506 | 
|
Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range | 2-10-2 | American Locomotive Company | |
| 2736 | 
|
Chesapeake and Ohio Railway | 2-8-4 | American Locomotive Company | |
| 5 | 
|
Pardee Curtin Lumber Company, Ely Thomas Lumber Company | Shay | Lima Locomotive Works | |
| 29 | 
|
Pullman Company | 0-4-0ST | American Locomotive Company | |
| 2718 | 
|
St. Paul & St. Louis (Soo Line) | 4-6-2 | American Locomotive Company |
- Diesel Locomotives:
| Number | Images | Heritage | Type | Builder | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 106 | 
|
Southern Pacific, Chrome Crankshaft Company, Green Bay and Western, James River Paper Company) | ALCO S-6 | American Locomotive Company | |
| 315 | 
|
Green Bay and Western | ALCO Century 430 | American Locomotive Company | |
| 73 | 
|
South Buffalo, Fort Howard Paper Company, Georgia Pacific | ALCO S-2 | American Locomotive Company | |
| 2402 | 
|
Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy, Chicago and North Western, Fox River Valley | EMD SD24 | Electro-Motive Diesel | |
| 2 | 
|
Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific | Aerotrain | Electro-Motive Diesel | |
| 1 | 
|
Manistique and Lake Superior, Ann Arbor | ALCO S-3 | American Locomotive Company | |
| D538 | 
|
Tomahawk and Western, Minneapolis and St. Louis | EMD NW1 | Electro-Motive Diesel | |
| 715 | 
|
Soo Line, Wisconsin Central Ltd. | EMD GP30 | Electro-Motive Diesel | |
| 106 | 
|
United States Army, Menominee Tribal Enterprise, Marathon Paper Company, Weyerhauser Company | Whitcomb
44-ton |
Whitcomb | |
| 8651 | 
|
United States Army | ALCO RSD-1 | American Locomotive Company | |
| 1563 | 
|
Kentucky and East Indiana Terminal, Southern, Norfolk Southern, Wisconsin Central, Canadian National | EMD SW1500 | Electro-Motive Diesel | |
| 737 | 
|
Milwaukee Road, Central Wisconsin, Wisconsin Western | FM H-10-44 | Fairbanks-Morse | |
|
Rahr Malting Company, Anheiser-Busch | 20-ton Plymouth | Plymouth Locomotive Works | ||
| 702 | 
|
Wisconsin Public Service Company | JGT class 20-ton | Plymouth Locomotive Works | NRM rebuilt #702 into the first Thomas replica used for the first "Day Out With Thomas" event in America |
- Electric Locomotives:
| Number | Images | Heritage | Type | Builder | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4890 | 
|
Pennsylvania Railroad, Penn Central, Amtrak | GG1 | Altoona Works |
- Former Locomotives:
| Number | Images | Heritage | Type | Builder | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Milwaukee Road No. 261 | 
|
Milwaukee Road | 4-8-4 | American Locomotive Company |
Trivia[]
- The museum hosted an annual Day Out with Thomas event until 2019. They were the first place in the United States to hold the event.
- In October they operate "Terror on the Fox": Green Bay Preble Optimist Club's haunted attraction that includes "haunted" train rides after dark.
- The Frederick J. Lenfesty Center, a 28,000 square foot enclosed and climate-controlled structure was built in 2001 that houses several of the unique and rarer locomotives and cars.
- The museum's archives hold corporate records and documents, annual reports, maps, mechanical and engineering drawings, oral histories, and ephemera. The holdings represent various railroad companies, labor unions, and fraternal organizations.
- Its library holds works on the social, economic, political, and cultural aspects of U.S. railroading history.
- The National Railroad Museum holds over 5,000 artifacts, including textiles, uniforms, tools and personal items.
- Its photograph collection includes 15,000 photographic prints, slides, and film negatives of U.S. railroading since 1890.