This year’s Danbury Railway Days will be full of educational activities and include FREE train rides for the whole family. The museum will be operating the Railyard Local — a short FREE trip in a vintage 1925 Reading Company passenger coach being pulled by an ALCo RS-1 locomotive built in 1948, with locomotive cab rides available.
The train will stop at the old New Haven RR turntable, built circa 1914 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places, where visitors will detrain and hear a discussion about the use and history of the only power-operated turntable in Connecticut, and then take a ride on it! After the turntable ride, watch a demonstration about how diesel-electric locomotives work, how train cars are coupled and uncoupled, and a demonstration of vital railroad communications via hand signals, with kids in attendance assisting the conductor.
After returning to the Danbury Union Station, visitors may tour the New York Central’s famous 20th Century Limited observation car, “Tonawanda Valley” built in 1928, an award-winning restoration. In the Danbury Museum building, visitors can explore railroad history exhibits, operating electric train layouts, static model displays of the station and railyard, many one-of-a-kind artifacts of railroading history, a wonderful gift shop, and many other items of interest, including a used book sale.
The Danbury Railway Museum is a non-profit organization, staffed solely by volunteers, and is dedicated to the preservation of, and education about, railroad history. VISIT HERE for more information.