Shreveport’s railroad museum offers an unusual comparison between two uses of steam. Its historical railway artifacts are displayed at the Shreveport Water Works Museum, where large stationary pumping engines interpret the city’s water-supply history. The railway gallery, opened in 2013 in an auxiliary building, adds transportation to that industrial account. Seeing the two subjects together makes it easier to understand steam as a versatile source of power rather than something associated only with locomotives.
The organization behind the railway collection began as the Red River Valley Railroad Historical Society in 1981. It adopted the Shreveport Railroad Museum name in 2022. Its focus is the railroads of northern Louisiana, with regional visitor information tracing the local railway story back to 1860. That long-term collecting effort means the artifacts represent a community’s interest in recording its transport past, not simply an exhibit assembled around the waterworks.
The full-size collection is larger than the display at the current museum building. The operator identifies steam locomotive No. 1140, a diesel switching engine, a caboose, coach, baggage car, dining car and motor car among the society’s holdings. Crucially, it says this rolling stock is stored off-site, with plans for an expanded adjacent museum area. These vehicles should not be advertised as if they are all available to view during an ordinary visit to the present gallery.
Another proposed addition described by the museum is D&R locomotive No. 10, associated with work on the Panama Canal. That connection demonstrates how railway equipment could serve major construction projects as well as scheduled trains. It is best understood as part of the museum’s collection-development story until the operator confirms its current location and public display.
At the existing site, concentrate on the regional artifacts and the comparison with the pumping station’s machinery. Ask how railway steam power differed from an engine designed to remain in one building, and what kinds of workers maintained each. The reward is an industrial-history partnership that connects movement, public infrastructure and the continuing effort to preserve Shreveport’s railway memory.
Visitor information
Researched November 2026.
Sources
More railroad museums in Louisiana
- DeQuincy Railroad Museum — DeQuincy: Depot museum and railroad collection
- Eunice Depot Museum — Eunice: Depot and local history museum
- Louisiana Orphan Train Museum — Opelousas: Rail-related social-history museum
- Louisiana Steam Train Association — Jefferson: Steam-locomotive preservation collection
- Southern Forest Heritage Museum — Long Leaf: Industrial museum with logging railway collection
- All 6 railroad museums and sites in Louisiana
Keep exploring
- All heritage sites — museums, stations and landmarks
- Southeast — the trains you can ride in the region