Railway museums in the New York state

Can someone give his/her opinion on the following musea:

The Medina Railroad museum

The Rochester & Genesee Valley Railroad museum

The New York State Railroad museum

The Salamanca Railroad museum.

Since I will be close to these places next autumn, I like to know which ones are worth a visit.

Besises the above mentioed are there more railroad musems or museums with a railroad section in the New York State?

Thanks in advance!

The Medina Railroad museum
excellent!
they are building a HUGE, and I mean HUGE, HO scale layout..very impresive.
and tons of railroad and firefighter memoribilia, great collection.
first-class operation.

The Rochester & Genesee Valley Railroad museum
also excellent, large display of prototype equipment outside..not as big of a museum "inside"..but their prototype collection is unmatched in the state.


The New York State Railroad museum (havent been there..not sure what that is! is there a "New York state Railroad museum"?)

The Salamanca Railroad museum.
smaller, but still worth the stop.
good collection of B&O and BR&P stuff.

I highly recommend all three!

The new museum in Sayre PA is scheduled to open this summer..not sure exactly when..they are a few miles south of Waverly, New York, along the southern tier..if you are railanning the southern tier line between Corning & Binghamton they would be worth a stop..if they are open when you come through..

Also, if you go to the The Rochester & Genesee Valley Railroad museum, be sure to catch the NY transportation museum down the road..
they are 2 seperate museums, but connected by a rail line.
maybe 2 miles apart by road, one mile by rail..(im guessing)

Scot

The Medina Railroad museum - hours of open???

The New York State Railroad museum - Where???

tks

ken

Medina:
http://www.railroadmuseum.net/
Open daily Tues-Sun from 11:00A.M. to 5:00P.M

I dont think there is a "New York state Railroad Museum"..
I was thinking there might be something as part of "New York state museum" in Albany, but I dont know if there is anything rail-related there.
there is the "New York state trolley museum" in Kingston.

Scot

You are probably refering to the New York State Museum of Transportation, which as noted above is a short distance from the R&GV museum and connected by rail.

Combining the responses it is obvious that when I mentioned the New York State Railroad museum, I was actualy refering to the New York State Transportation museum. I do recall there were two railway related musea close to each other in the Rochester area.

As a side step how is the Trolley museum in Kingston? As far I a can recall the New Your State map it is a bit out of the way. In order to prevent confusion when: I am refering to a trolley I mean a bus (road vehicle) powered by overhead catenary so no rails. Only a few cities in the world do have this system of public transport still in place, one is Arhem in the Netherlands.

BR&P,

One small correction. It is the New York Museum of Transportation. There is not State in NYMT's name just as there is no state funding that comes to the museum. That is a common mistake.

For everyone's reference, the NYMT and the Rochester & Genesee Valley Railroad Museum are located "around the corner" from each other in Rush, New York. We are also connected by our own 2-mile railroad, and that is how we carry passengers between the two museums. We are, however, two separate groups although many of the volunteers hold memberships in both groups.

Here are the two museums' websites:

NYMT
www.nymtmuseum.org

R&GV Railroad Museum (A project of the Rochester Chapter NRHS)
www.rochnrhs.org

I will be happy to answer any questions that people might have on the R&GV Railroad Museum and will be happy to get answers from the NYMT if needed.

Thanks!

Until later,
Chris Hauf
Manager - Railroad Equipment
Rochester & Genesee Valley Railroad Museum

NS3737- It sounds like you're not from around here- will you be visiting the Rochester and Buffalo areas? New York State is a big place, and many of the things that you might want to see could be two- or four-hours drive away... there are many railroad museums and railroad displays around the state. If visiting the Rochester area, I reccomend the NYMT and the R&GV... not only is there a large collection of equipment, part of your admission includes a track car ride between the two museums! The Medina Railroad Museum has a large collection of artifacts and a large HO scale layout on display.

Website for the Medina Railroad Museum:
http://www.railroadmuseum.net/

There are some displays and museums in the Buffalo area. The Niagara Frontier Chapter has a museum just north of the city... not sure how far along the displays are developed, though.
http://www.railroadniagara.com/

The Western New York Railroad Historical Society has displays, depots, and equipment stored and on display throughout Williamsville, Buffalo, and Hamburg...
http://www.trainweb.org/wnyrhs/

There is a lot to see, just in western New York! If you had more time, I would suggest riding the Adirondack Scenic Railroad (Utica, NY, and Thendara, NY), the Upper Hudson River Railroad (North Creek, NY), the Cooperstown & Charlotte Valley (Milford, NY), the Ulster & Delaware Rail Ride (Arkville, NY), the Catskill Mountain Railroad (Phonecia, NY), the Trolley Museum of New York (Kingston, NY), the O&W Museum (Roscoe, NY), Salamanca Rail Museum (Salamanca, NY)... and more. You can find more information on these other museums by doing a search on Google.

Enjoy!

-otto-

Otto- are u asking me?? or did u meant to ask NS3737 who originally started this thread?

I just want to know the hours of media RR museum because my in-laws live in middleport and I thought that I might take kids to there while we visit in-laws.


"NYS RR musum" - I never heard of this but I had feeling that he meant NYS museum of transportation. So I just smply brought this up to someone could clarify, in case there IS REALLY NYS RR museum that I never knew of.


thanks.

ken

sd80mac - The medina museum is open Tuesday thru Sunday. There hours are 11am to 5 pm.

This is very ironic, I was planning a trip to the medina museum today, so I called ahead to make sure they would be open and thank god I did. The women I talked to said they would be closed today, due to a meeting they must attend in Lockport.

So everybody, make sure you call any place before you drive a long distance to get somewhere!!

By the way - The number for the Medina museum is (585) 798-6106

sd80mac- there is no NYS Museum of Transportation.

-otto-

Chris - let me state that I stand corrected on the state of the "state". I will remember your statement that there is no 'state" in the Museum's name, LOL.

At any rate, and by any name, the place is well worth a visit, especially if you are at the R&GV already. While separate entities, together they make a good destination if you are in the area. (Allow some time to wander around the estate, there's a lot to see)

Otto

You are quite right I am not local as a matter of fact I am writing this from the Netherlands. But nevertheless I am quite familiar with the Rochester area since I lived there for about five months. I also have a fair insight with respect to distances in the New York state and do not mind a three hours drive. DUring my stay back then I could do little railfanning since my fellow Dutch colleages with whom I shared the rental car did not care much about trains and so I also not could not visit any railway related museum. Since this time it will be a vacation trip I have complete freedom. At the moment I am just considering my options, and I will probably discover that I need two months to see all. So then the process of selection will start in order not to overload the two weeks I have available.

Thus with the above in mind and with the matter of the names of the two musea near Rocheter sorted out, I can start the proces of selection.

For now thanks for the helpfull input you all gave me allready.

Greeting from across the Atlantic.

NS3737- I think you could easily visit the the NYMT, R&GV, and the Medina Railroad Museum in a day... would make for a good Sunday of railroading! Let us know about your trip!

-otto-

With my still continueing search for information I sumbled upon the site of one other railway museum. And here there is defenitely state in the name: The Empire State Railway Museum. Any first hand eports on that one?

http://www.esrm.com/esrm/default.htm

Kind regards

Gijs

And just for fun: a small but interesting Railway Museum in Estonia located in the Impererial Quarters of the former railway station at Haapsalu. They have english explanations to the items on display.

http://jaam.ee/