Shelburne Museum’s railroad collection is best understood as a group of connected exhibits. There is a station where a journey began, a freight shed that explains work away from the passenger platform, and two vehicles that tell very different stories about travel. The station is Shelburne’s original railroad station. The freight shed is a reproduction built for the museum in 1963. That distinction is useful because the collection includes both an authentic building and a later structure built to interpret railway work.
Central Vermont locomotive No. 220 supplies the power in the story. Built in 1915, the coal-burning 4-6-0 hauled both passengers and freight. The museum calls it the locomotive of the Presidents because it pulled special trains carrying Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Dwight D. Eisenhower. That association is a memorable detail, but the locomotive’s more ordinary work is worth considering too. A machine could earn a ceremonial reputation while spending much of its life doing the everyday work that kept a regional railroad in business. It was retired in 1956.
The private car Grand Isle offers another view of railway travel. Built around 1890, it was presented to Vermont’s governor and purchased by the museum in 1960. Its mahogany-paneled parlor, dining room and staterooms show the kind of accommodation available in a private car. Compare those rooms with the station and its shared public spaces. The contrast helps explain how differently travelers could experience the same transportation system.
The freight shed brings the story back to the people who made the journeys possible. Tools, handcarts and signal lanterns illustrate practical jobs that would not appear in a luxury car’s interior. Visit the station and shed as well as No. 220 and the Grand Isle if they are open. Together they show what happened before, during and around a journey, from handling goods to moving a special train.
Visitor information
Researched November 2026.
Sources
More railroad museums in Vermont
- Rutland Railway Museum — Center Rutland: Depot and railroad history museum
- All 2 railroad museums and sites in Vermont
Keep exploring
- All heritage sites — museums, stations and landmarks
- Northeast — the trains you can ride in the region