The National Railroad Museum is a

railroad museum A railway museum is a museum that explores the history of all aspects of rail related transportation, including: locomotives (steam, diesel, and electric), railway cars, trams, and railway signalling equipment. They may also operate historic equ ...

located in Ashwaubenon,

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

, 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 Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

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. Its collection of

locomotives A locomotive or engine is a rail transport vehicle that provides the motive power for a train. If a locomotive is capable of carrying a payload, it is usually rather referred to as a multiple unit, motor coach, railcar or power car; the u ...

and rolling stock spans more than a century of railroading. Notable items include an ''

Aerotrain Aerotrain may refer to: * Aérotrain, a hovercraft train developed in France * AeroTrain, an tiltrotor aircraft proposed by Karem Aircraft * Aerotrain (GM), a passenger train built by General Motors Electro-Motive Division * AeroTrain (Washington D ...

;''

Union Pacific The Union Pacific Railroad , legally Union Pacific Railroad Company and often called simply Union Pacific, is a freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Paci ...

Big Boy No. 4017, one of the world's largest steam locomotives; and

British Rail British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four British rai ...

ways

Class A4 The Class A4 is a class of streamlined 4-6-2 steam locomotive designed by Nigel Gresley for the London and North Eastern Railway in 1935. Their streamlined design gave them high-speed capability as well as making them instantly recognisable, and ...

No. 60008 ''Dwight D Eisenhower'' (ex-

London & North Eastern Railway London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a major se ...

No. 4496 ''Golden Shuttle'') and train used by the Supreme Allied Commander and his staff in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

and continental

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. A museum building houses a wide variety of railroad artifacts, an archive, and photography gallery. A

standard gauge A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), International gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge and European gauge in Europe, and SGR in Ea ...

track rings the grounds. An wooden observation tower has views of the Fox River and Green Bay. The museum hosts an annual '' Day Out with Thomas'' event, where

Thomas the Tank Engine Thomas the Tank Engine is an anthropomorphised fictional tank locomotive in the British ''Railway Series'' books by Wilbert Awdry and his son, Christopher, published from 1945. He became the most popular and famous character in the series, a ...

pulls young friends past the exhibited rolling stock; and in October, "Terror on the

Fox Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelve sp ...

": Green Bay Preble

Optimist Club Optimist International is an international service club organization with almost 3,000 clubs and over 80,000 members in more than 20 countries. The international headquarters is located in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. Optimist Internationa ...

's haunted attraction that includes "haunted" train rides after dark. The Frederick J. Lenfesty Center, an enclosed and climate-controlled structure was recently added that houses several of the unique and rarer locomotives and cars. LNER Class A4 4496 Dwight D Eisenhower 2010

LNER Class A4 4496 Dwight D Eisenhower 2010

Rolling stock

Steam locomotives

Diesel locomotives

Electric locomotives

Passenger cars

Freight cars

Maintenance of way cars

Cabooses

Other equipment

Other collections

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.

Capital campaign

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.

References

{{authority control Railroad museums in Wisconsin National railway museums Culture of Green Bay, Wisconsin Museums in Brown County, Wisconsin Haunted attractions (simulated) 1956 establishments in Wisconsin