Take time to visit the Wilmington Railroad Museum. Started in 1979 by three women and a table of Atlantic Coast Line (ACL) Railroad artifacts, the Wilmington Railroad Museum was dedicated to preserving the rich history of the ACL Railroad and a general history of railroading in the southeastern United States. By 1983 this museum found a home in the former ACL Freight Office Building. In 2007 the Museum would move to an authentic 1883 railroad freight warehouse, a setting that contributes to the railroad environment when looking at all this museum has to offer.
Their museum displays cover a wide array of railroading topics. These displays and artifacts helped to illustrate various aspects of railroading. One of the cabinets that caught my attention was about the railroad police. A police ledger was shown that recorded the culprit’s name, the offense and penalty or fines that person was made to pay. Reading some of the entries, trespassing on railroad property was a punishable offense and a problem even back then in the early 1900’s.
There are also two fine model railroad layouts on display within the museum. The first layout greets the visitor in the lobby where tickets are purchased. The person who designed this layout showed a lot of imagination and creativity when building this one. Entering into another room, a visitor comes face-to-face with an even bigger layout. One museum feature related to these layouts was a checklist list of various scenes the visitor could try and locate that was found on both layouts. In a subtle way, these lists would make a visitor look at little closer to try and determine where these scenes were located on the layout. Being a part time model railroader myself, these two layouts also provided me with some ideas for scenes to be added to my home layout.
It should also be noted that the museum has been recognized by Guinness World Records for running the longest model train. This accomplishment took place on April 23, 2011 in the Wilmington’s Convention Center. The HO train scale length was 24.571 km (15.27 miles). The 925.55 foot long train had 31 locomotives and 1,563 cars placed on 1,000 feet of track. According to the museum’s website “…this train traveled continuously for 750 feet to surpass the record set by Miniatur Wunderland in Hamburg, Germany in 2008.”
So should you find yourself in Wilmington, NC, take some time to visit this museum. It will be a stop that you won’t regret making.
