Railroad Museum

[USS ALASKA]

Ma'am, that is a stylized rendering of this...

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/be/Test_run_of_streamlined_20th_Century_Limited_1938.jpg

20th Century Limited - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

...I think there are some Streamliner Locos at the B & O Museum - https://www.borail.org/ and the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania - https://rrmuseumpa.org/

As far as active locos, I'm uncertain.

HTHs,
USS ALASKA

 

[Library Lady]

@USS ALASKA , thank you so much! Apparently, my love for this engine will be unrequited. It appears to be a J-3a Super Hudson streamliner. According to Wikipedia, the New York Central scrapped all of them when the line went to diesel. The Santa Fe also scrapped their "Blue Goose."

I do like the pictures of the Norfolk and Western J 611 that @captaindrew posted. That may be as close as I can get. At least it's still out and running about. I understand that Positive Train Control may be a problem for any steam engine and it would have to apply for a waver or have a present-day diesel engine with it (which kind of defeats the purpose of seeing a steam engine out doing its thing).

 

[captaindrew]

Can anyone tell me what kind of engine is in this poster? Are there any left? If yes, is there one doing steam excursions?

Vintage Art Deco Railroad Travel, 1938 Poster | Zazzle

FREE Design Tool on Zazzle! Shop Vintage Art Deco Railroad Travel, 1938 Poster created by HistoryPhoto. Personalize it with photos & text or purchase as is!

www.zazzle.com

I just found out that the UP has again retired the Challenger because it needs a rebuild. From the sound of things, I'm not sure the Big Boy will be running again, either, so I'm looking for a new engine to love. The art deco posters for the 20th Century Limited have always intrigued me, so I thought I'd start with that engine.

This project will probably interest you https://prrt1steamlocomotivetrust.org/

 

[Library Lady]

This project will probably interest you https://prrt1steamlocomotivetrust.org/

Totally cool, @captaindrew ! Thank you so much for bringing this to my attention.

This all started because I was looking to add a railroad museum to this thread. My plan was the Cheyenne Depot Museum in Cheyenne, Wyoming, not so much for the museum itself, although the building is architecturally significant and might appeal to @carptrash , and I understand there is a very good model railroad layout upstairs, but because that is where you got tickets and a trolley ride to the UP steam shops. The UP steam shops were giving a few tours a year a couple years ago, but there are none scheduled now. Neither could I find a steam excursion schedule for this year. Unfortunately, I found that Challenger had been retired again and rumors that the whole UP steam program might be in trouble. The thought makes me very sad!

The video was interesting. I was wondering where they were going to put the engine together and, as of yet, they have no place. They also mentioned that they haven't spoken to any class I railroad yet about obtaining time/space on their tracks to run excursions (and I understand the reasons). In addition, they mentioned the safety requirements that class I's were likely to demand and stated a willingness to comply. I would love to see this engine come to Railroad Days in West Chicago when it's completed (and if the UP will allow it).

 

[USS ALASKA]

This all started because I was looking to add a railroad museum to this thread.

Go Go Go!!! Please do! The more, the better!

If you are interested in steam excursions and out Pennsylvania 'Deutsch' land way... https://www.strasburgrailroad.com/

Cheers!
USS ALASKA

 

[carptrash]

Totally cool, @captaindrew ! Thank you so much for bringing this to my attention.

the building is architecturally significant and might appeal to @carptrash ,

You are absolutely correct and it (the building) has led me on a merry goose chase since discovering your post. The website for the museum, and a few others, get me a "Your Browser Is No Longer Supported" flag when I try to go there. I discovered an article about the building on wikipedia, but for some reason I don't get to see pictures there. Howevr I learned that the architects were Van Brunt & Howe, a Boston firm I am marginally familiar with. I did find pictures elsewhere, so had to go back to wikipedia and make an edit about the style. I found some pictures of the interior and was surrprised to see it had a very art deco feel to it, until I learned that the interior had been redone in 1929. And more, but thanks for pointing the way. Some time I'll tell you about my train song adventure.

 

[Library Lady]

This is not yet a museum, but it sounds as if part of it might become one. Railroading Heritage of Midwest America bought the old Rock Island shops in Silvis, Illinois (over by the Quad Cities on the Mississippi). This was announced back in January 2022.

Owners of Milwaukee Road 261 Acquires Former Rock Island Shop in Illinois

Railroading Heritage of Midwest America says Silvis, Ill., shops will be the largest historic railroad restoration facility in the country.

railfan.com

In April 2022, the Union Pacific donated a good part of its heritage fleet to Railroading Heritage of Midwest America. At the top of the list (as far as I'm concerned ) is the Challenger. The plan is to rehab it at Silvis and once again make it operational for excursion runs. Silvis is a bit of a hike from where I live in suburban Chicago, but it sure beats going to Wyoming! I am thrilled, and I really hope this all works out.

Union Pacific, RRHMA reach agreement to preserve historic locomotives | Railroading Heritage of Midwest America

rrhma.com

 

[Lubliner]

This is not yet a museum, but it sounds as if part of it might become one. Railroading Heritage of Midwest America bought the old Rock Island shops in Silvis, Illinois (over by the Quad Cities on the Mississippi). This was announced back in January 2022.

Owners of Milwaukee Road 261 Acquires Former Rock Island Shop in Illinois

Railroading Heritage of Midwest America says Silvis, Ill., shops will be the largest historic railroad restoration facility in the country.

railfan.com

In April 2022, the Union Pacific donated a good part of its heritage fleet to Railroading Heritage of Midwest America. At the top of the list (as far as I'm concerned ) is the Challenger. The plan is to rehab it at Silvis and once again make it operational for excursion runs. Silvis is a bit of a hike from where I live in suburban Chicago, but it sure beats going to Wyoming! I am thrilled, and I really hope this all works out.

Union Pacific, RRHMA reach agreement to preserve historic locomotives | Railroading Heritage of Midwest America

rrhma.com

On the second link, in the second picture, the green and orange train; I had one of these for a Christmas gift from my Grandad, a Lionel Train that was identical, about 1956 or 1957. Thank you for the sweet memory.
Lubliner.

 

[USS ALASKA]

The Old Depot Museum
1010 Levee Street
Vicksburg, Mississippi 39180

A great part of the Old Depot Museum is dedicated to the railroad industry and features N, O, and HO layouts complete with buildings, scenery, and architecture. We also have hundreds of scale models of vessels, boats and ships dating from the Vikings to the present. The producers of the "Great Ships" on the History Channel not only filmed much of their program using our collections, but they also called them a "Gold Mine". A walk through the Old Depot Museum is a walk through military and maritime history. Ships and boats long forgotten come to life in exact replica. This museum features the only diorama of the Siege of Vicksburg, which provides a birds-eye view of the layout of the battlefield, manned by over 2000 miniature soldiers and is approximately 250 square feet. To fully understand the Siege of Vicksburg, you must grasp the terrain, the leaders, and their strategies, and the people who endured the horrendous 47-day Siege.

The Old Depot Museum - Vicksburg, MS

The Old Depot Museum, located in Vicksburg, Mississippi, features railroad layouts complete with buildings, scenery, and architecture alongside hundreds of scale models of vessels, boats and ships dating from the Vikings to the present.

www.theolddepot.net

The displays of ships that once competed with trains at the Old Depot Museum on Levee Street have in the past year gone to a higher level — the building's second floor. "We started moving them off this floor to make room for the trains," museum Chairman of the Board Dave Benway said, adding the move began in November 2021. "We moved all model ships but the Civil War ships. The Civil War ships stayed on the ground floor." The move was quite a feat, considering the size of the museum's maritime collection of U.S. warships named for Mississippi and Vicksburg, steamers, towboats and Civil War gunboats and rams. "We have one of the largest collections of ships anywhere," Benway said. "Lamar Roberts believed that we had the largest collection of Civil War ships and steamboats. We have about 130 Civil War ships portrayed in models and we have about 160 models of steamboats and towboats and steamers and it keeps on going." A walk or elevator ride to the second floor of the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley Depot that houses the museum reveals a relatively open collection of display cases showing battleships, cruisers and submarines named for Vicksburg or Mississippi. The area that until 2016 held the offices of the Vicksburg Convention and Visitors Bureau now holds cases displaying towboats and steamships, a tribute to area veterans and a display devoted to the steamer Sprague, which was destroyed by fire. Another display was dedicated to Ensign Jesse Brown, the Navy's first African American aviator and a Vicksburg-area native who was shot down and killed in Korea providing cover for Marines withdrawing from the Chosin Reservoir during the Korean War. Brown received the Distinguished Flying Cross posthumously. Benway said future plans include building a 300 square-foot army base in HO railroad scale on the ground floor and a Mississippi room on the third floor with a Mississippians collection, five Mississippi ships and the deck of the World War I cruiser USS Vicksburg, which is presently in storage.

Full article with pics can be read here - https://www.vicksburgpost.com/2022/...-museum-sees-changes-second-floor-renovation/

Cheers,
USS ALASKA

 

[Old Soldier]

Ma'am, that is a stylized rendering of this...

View attachment 434796

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/be/Test_run_of_streamlined_20th_Century_Limited_1938.jpg

20th Century Limited - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

...I think there are some Streamliner Locos at the B & O Museum - https://www.borail.org/ and the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania - https://rrmuseumpa.org/

As far as active locos, I'm uncertain.

HTHs,
USS ALASKA

Its rather like a UK version:

and the reality:

 

[USS ALASKA]

Mission
Educating future generations about the role steam machinery played in the United States and how it improved the quality of life globally. Accomplishing this by the unique means of a living history museum of steam powered equipment, including railroad locomotives operated in a safe and professional manner.

The La Porte County Historical Steam Society is a Not-for-Profit 501c3 dedicated to restoring and preserving steam equipment which played such an important part in the history of American culture and improved the quality of life on a global scale never seen before. While all have a common devotion and intent of purpose, the members of this group have a wide variety in their background, business or profession, and education.

Hesston Steam Musuem

Ride three different steam railroads & experience machines of the industrial age

hesston.org

Locomotives

Number	Original Owner	Gauge	Type	Builder	Build Date	Notes
Steam Locomotives
1	Indianapolis Power & Light	Standard	0-4-0F	Porter Locomotive Works	1950	Non-Operational. Running gear and frame only. From Indiana Transportation Museum
2	United Fruit Company	3 ft (914 mm)	2-6-0	Porter Locomotive Works	1911	Operational, returned to operation in 2019.
7	New Mexico Lumber Company	3 ft 36 inch	Class C (Three truck) Shay	Lima Locomotive Works	1929	Operational. Last narrow gauge Shay locomotive built.[2]
17	United Fruit Company	36 inch	2-6-0	Porter Locomotive Works	1920	Under restoration to be returned to operation. From the Gilmore Car Museum.
125	A. Meyer (?)	2 ft (610 mm)	0-4-0T	Ceskomoravska Kolben-Danek	1940	Operational. From Czech Republic.
242	Brookfield Zoo	24 inch	2-4-2	Sandley Locomotive Works	1972	Operational. Named "James R. Donnelley".
99 3361	Deutsche Reichsbahn	24 inch	0-8-0	Orenstein & Koppel	1938	Stored operational. From Germany.
1	German Army	24 inch	2-8-0	Arnold Jung	1918	Stored. Named Feldbahn. From the Brookfield Zoo.
3001	Kiddieland Amusement Park	14 inch	4-8-4	Wagner and Sons Miniature Train Company	1949	Operational.
N/A	Kiddieland Amusement Park	14 in (356 mm)	4-6-4	Wagner and Sons Miniature Train Company	1941	Operational.
5910-15	OH Parks & Rec	14 inch	4-4-0	Crown Metal Products	1959	Inoperable display.
3	Stet and Query Central	14 inch	4-4-0	Built by Wagner & Son. Cab modified by Sandley Works when owned by E. Donnelley	1922	Stored serviceable.
1	Kiddieland Amusement Park	14 inch	4-6-4	Wagner & Son.	1938	Operational.
N/A	Hesston Steam Museum	3 ft	2-2-0	Rick Weber	2022	Operational. Half scale replica of the Tom Thumb locomotive.
Diesel Locomotives
15	Carpenter Steel	2 ft	DDT 12 Ton	Plymouth Locomotive Works	1958	Operational. Used For Switching and Lighter Days.
2	Carpenter Steel	2 ft	DDT 12 Ton	Plymouth Locomotive Works	1957	Operational. Used For Switching and Lighter Days.
3	Inland Steel	2 ft	DDT 12 Ton	Plymouth Locomotive Works	1958	Stored. Burned in 1985 Fire.
4	Illinois Brick Company	2 ft	DGT 10 Ton	Plymouth Locomotive Works	1953	Operational. Used For Switching and Lighter Days.
999	Brookfield Zoo	2 ft	SW-1	Sandley Locomotive Works	1966	Operational. Used For Switching and Lighter Days.
1	Sullivan Machinery	2 ft	7 Ton	Whitcomb Locomotive Works	1923	Inoperable. On display.
5	Stet and Query Central	14 inch	Boxcab	Likely Sandley Locomotive Works	19??	Operational. Used For Switching and Lighter Days.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hesston_Steam_Museum

Cheers,
USS ALASKA

 

[RebelWeber]

I was lucky enough to be able to volunteer at Steamtown when they first opened, I have served at New Hope and Ivyland a little time at Strasburg and the better part of my time at the Wilmington and Western ... I've been around the roundhouse a couple of times ... Lol