Connecticut’s three railroad museums are small but complete. The Connecticut Eastern Railroad Museum at Willimantic and the Railroad Museum of New England at Thomaston both have operating collections, and the Danbury Railway Museum is built around a station and its rolling stock.
Each listing below links to a full guide with the history, what to look for and how to reach the operator.
Railroad museums & sites in Connecticut — 3
Connecticut Eastern Railroad Museum
The Connecticut Eastern Railroad Museum preserves the railway history of Willimantic and eastern Connecticut at a former railroad working site. Its collection and reconstructed railway features help visitors understand the infrastructure behind train operation as well as the vehicles themselves. The museum is particularly suited to people interested in yards, maintenance and the everyday railway workplace. Opening is seasonal and follows the museum’s own calendar.
Read the guide →Danbury Railway Museum
Danbury’s restored 1903 Union Station houses artifacts and a research library covering the railways of New England and the surrounding region. Outside, the former railway yard provides space for a much larger equipment collection. The combination lets visitors move from the personal and documentary side of railroad history to the locomotives and cars themselves. Special operating days offer a further dimension, but ordinary admission should not be described as guaranteeing access to every vehicle.
Read the guide →Railroad Museum of New England
The Railroad Museum of New England combines a collection of locomotives, passenger cars, freight cars and cabooses with operation on the Naugatuck Railroad. Its mission is to explain the region’s railway heritage through both exhibits and actual train travel. Thomaston station provides the visitor base and an appropriate historic setting. The museum’s roots go back to a preservation organization founded in 1968, showing the long-term volunteer work behind the trains seen on an excursion today.
Read the guide →Ride a train in Connecticut
Museums are for walking around; these operators run trains you can ride.
- Essex Steam Train & Riverboat — Essex: steam train & riverboat
Keep exploring
- All heritage sites — flagship sites and state guides
- Northeast — the trains you can ride in the region
- Railroad museums in Delaware
- Railroad museums in District of Columbia
- Railroad museums in Maine
- Railroad museums in Maryland
- Railroad museums in Massachusetts
- Railroad museums in New Hampshire
- Railroad museums in New Jersey
- Railroad museums in New York
- Railroad museums in Pennsylvania
- Railroad museums in Vermont