The Kansas Museum of History gives the railway story a prominent place within the wider development of the state. Its great full-size railway exhibit is Santa Fe locomotive No. 132, the company’s oldest surviving engine. Set among galleries about Kansas people, landscapes and industries, it is a reminder that a locomotive’s importance cannot be measured only by horsepower. Railways helped reshape settlement, agriculture and the movement of goods across the plains.
No. 132 entered service in 1880 and initially worked at Raton Pass on the Colorado–New Mexico border. Its 2-8-0 wheel arrangement reflects a design intended for demanding freight work. After larger engines displaced it, the locomotive continued in local and switching duties, including service at the Argentine freight terminal in Kansas City. An engine built for mountain work thus survived by adapting to less glamorous tasks.
Its later life is particularly colorful. Saved from scrapping around 1940, the locomotive became a corporate heritage symbol and eventually operated under the name Cyrus K. Holliday, honoring a Santa Fe founder. It appeared at public celebrations and even in an episode of Gunsmoke. The engine last moved under its own power in 1961. For the museum, it was restored to the appearance associated with its original service as No. 132.
The railway display belongs to a museum established in west Topeka in the 1980s, drawing on collections accumulated by the Kansas Historical Society since 1875. Other galleries put transportation alongside Indigenous history, territorial conflict, agriculture and later social change. That setting helps explain the railroad’s effects, including its interest in attracting settlers who would become landowners, producers and freight customers.
Look closely at the engine’s running gear and compare the restored historical appearance with its long sequence of identities and jobs. The accompanying railway cars add the passenger and working-car perspective. The locomotive was moved into position while the museum building was still under construction, a striking illustration of the planning required for an artifact this large.
Visitor information
Researched November 2026.
Sources
More railroad museums in Kansas
- Abilene & Smoky Valley Railroad and Fred Schmidt Museum — Abilene: Operating heritage railway and railroad artifact museum
- Ellis Railroad Museum — Ellis: Railroad and local history museum
- Great Overland Station Museum — Topeka: Depot and railroad history museum
- Great Plains Transportation Museum — Wichita: Railroad museum and rolling-stock collection
- Halstead Heritage Museum and Depot — Halstead: Depot and local history museum
- Heart of the Heartlands Railroad Museum — Carona, near Scammon: Railroad museum and depot complex
- Iron Horse Museum — Parsons: Railroad artifact museum
- Old Depot Museum — Ottawa: Depot and local history museum
- All 10 railroad museums and sites in Kansas
Keep exploring
- All heritage sites — museums, stations and landmarks
- Midwest — the trains you can ride in the region