The Colfax Railroad Museum combines full-size railway equipment with an unusually strong collection of the smaller objects people encountered in everyday railway life. Its regional focus is western Wisconsin and eastern Minnesota, with vehicles and artifacts associated with the railroads that served those communities. The attraction rewards visitors who enjoy moving between scales: a locomotive outside, a conductor’s uniform inside, and the fine details of dining-car service or office equipment in a display case.
The depot has an eventful history of its own. The museum’s account identifies the main building as the village’s third station, constructed in 1914–1915 from locally quarried sandstone on the foundation of an earlier depot. A tornado in 1958 damaged the freight-house side of the station. Stone from the wreckage was used to rebuild a waiting-room wall, while the freight house itself was not restored. The building therefore preserves evidence of both railway construction and the community’s response to a destructive local event.
The equipment roster includes Soo Line caboose No. 273, coach No. 991, GP30 diesel locomotive No. 703 and a Porter 2-6-2T steam engine. Those vehicles suggest very different kinds of railway work. A coach was designed around passenger accommodation; a caboose provided a workplace for freight-train employees; a diesel and a tank engine represent different approaches to motive power. Look at the arrangement of windows, doors, platforms and outside machinery before reading the labels, then use the historical information to test what those design choices suggest.
Inside, dining-car china is a particular strength, alongside lanterns, signals, uniforms and an unexpectedly specialized collection of railroad paperweights. Such objects help explain the railway as a business and service organization, not just a machine. Tableware reflects passenger presentation, while an office paperweight belongs to the paperwork that kept traffic, accounts and communication organized. The museum’s stated aim is to show ordinary railway encounters and changing technology, an approach well suited to these collections.
Visitor information
Researched November 2026.
Sources
More railroad museums in Wisconsin
- National Railroad Museum — Ashwaubenon / Green Bay: Major railroad museum and research collection
- Fennimore Railroad Historical Society Museum — Fennimore: Railroad and local history museum
- La Crosse Short Line Railroad Display — 4000 Foundation — La Crosse: Outdoor railroad equipment and signal-tower collection
- Mid-Continent Railway Museum — North Freedom: Railroad museum and operating collection
- Railroad Memories Museum — Spooner: Depot and railroad artifact museum
- All 6 railroad museums and sites in Wisconsin
Keep exploring
- All heritage sites — museums, stations and landmarks
- Midwest — the trains you can ride in the region