Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania

50th Anniversary Celebration

Tuesday, April 22, 2025
10am - 4pm

The Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania will celebrate its golden anniversary year on Tuesday, April 22, 2025, which marks 50 years to the day that the world-class Museum of railroad history first opened to the public in 1975.

Usually closed on Tuesdays, the Museum will be open to the public from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.  Regular adult admission applies, with ages 11 and under admitted free of charge.

Activities of the Day:

The bell on the 123-year-old Pennsylvania Railroad E7s steam locomotive No. 7002 will be rung at 11:00 a.m. to formally start the day’s activities.  Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania director Patrick C. Morrison will welcome visitors and introduce guest dignitaries who will make brief remarks, including Andrea Lowery, executive director, Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission; Randall Spackman, commissioner, Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission; Jim Donohue, board of directors president, Friends of the Railroad Museum; Scott Martin, state senator, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania; Patrick Browne, department of revenue secretary, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania; and Stephen Ranck, outreach coordinator from the office of U.S. representative Lloyd Smucker.

The Lampeter-Strasburg High School concert band, whose predecessors performed at the Museum’s opening day in 1975, will play a variety of musical selections from 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m.  The band is directed by Larry Royer, with Robert Shaubach, assistant director.

Catcher, the Museum’s friendly and well-traveled mascot, will be on hand to greet visitors from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.  Kids can explore the Museum when they take part in a 50th anniversary scavenger hunt.  Visitors may purchase coffee and pastries from the Joe On The Go Coffee Company food truck from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00.  Lunch items will be available for purchase from Midileos food truck from 12:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m.  A variety of 50th anniversary merchandise and other railroading gifts may be purchased in the Whistle Stop Shop museum store.

Museum educators will be stationed outside throughout the day to highlight and interpret the victory garden.  Members of the Heirloom Seed Project from Landis Valley Museum will be on site to offer visitors heirloom seed packets, while supplies last, in honor of Earth Day.  Various pieces of railroad equipment will be open in the afternoon and the Museum telegrapher will be located in Steinman Station.  A work-in-progress HO scale model train layout of the 100,000-square-foot Museum and train yard will be on display in Rolling Stock Hall.

A new exhibit, “Tracking Our History: 50 Years of the Railroad Museum In Pictures,” will be mounted in the Museum’s second floor gallery.  It tells the story of the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania through pictures from its early days to the present.  Photos curated from the Museum’s archival research collection and institutional history feature how it has grown and fulfilled its mission over the past 50 years.

Visitor services staff will conduct a new 15-minute tour, “Building a Museum in 50 Years.”   This guided tour focuses on the history of the Museum over the past 50 years, its development over time and changes in the way the Museum presents its historic railroad collection to the public.  Tours will be given from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.