In Union Bridge, the Western Maryland Railway Historical Society preserves the records of a railroad in the buildings where some of those records were created. The station, company offices and express shed date from 1902. Each represents a different part of the work. The station was where the public met the railroad, the offices housed company activity and the express shed handled goods requiring organized transfer. Their proximity makes it easy to see how much happened beside the track.
The society was founded in 1967 to preserve railway history, with the Western Maryland Railway as its focus. Cooperation from the company helped establish the museum in the former Union Bridge complex. The collection grew to include memorabilia, photographs, technical books and records from the railroad itself. That combination gives the site special value for understanding the Western Maryland as a particular organization, with its own routes, practices and people.
Look for the different kinds of information each artifact can give you. A photograph can show how a place or piece of equipment changed. A publication intended for railroad employees can explain procedures that seldom appeared in publicity material. Office records can help connect an individual event with decisions made across the company. Bringing these sources together can reveal details of railway work that a locomotive viewed in isolation leaves unanswered.
The museum’s library also covers other regional railroads, a useful reminder that the Western Maryland operated in a network of connections and competing routes. The society’s current website is being developed alongside its older site. Consult its published visitor information for the current museum calendar, and contact the society separately if a particular archival item is the reason for the trip. For a general visit, start with the buildings. Their former uses give the photos, documents and railway objects a concrete setting, and their survival helps explain why Union Bridge is an appropriate place to study the company.
Visitor information
Researched November 2026.
Sources
More railroad museums in Maryland
- National Museum of Railroad History & Innovation (formerly B&O Railroad Museum) — Baltimore: Major railroad museum
- B&O Ellicott City Station Museum — Ellicott City: Historic station and railroad museum
- Bowie Railroad Museum — Bowie: Depot and railroad history museum
- Irish Railroad Workers Museum — Baltimore: Railroad workers’ homes and social-history museum
- La Plata Train Station Museum — La Plata: Depot and local railroad museum
- Oakland B&O Railroad Museum — Oakland: Depot and railroad history museum
- Queponco Railway Station Museum — Newark: Historic depot and railroad collection
- Walkersville Southern Railroad Museum — Walkersville: Railroad museum and operating collection
- All 9 railroad museums and sites in Maryland
Keep exploring
- All heritage sites — museums, stations and landmarks
- Northeast — the trains you can ride in the region