Railway Museum of Greater Cincinnati

The Railway Museum of Greater Cincinnati is a railroad museum in Covington, Kentucky.

Collection

The museum owns and maintains a collection of 80 historic railroad equipment located on a four-acre site.

The museum was founded in 1975 when a club of local railroad enthusiasts decided to run passenger cars on Amtrak trains. Several local members purchased cars for this goal. In the late 1980s, Amtrak tightened its restrictions on passenger cars, making it too expensive for most private citizens to keep them up.

Though the Amtrak excursions ended, the cars remained as the core of the present collection.cite news|url=http://www.cincypost.com/2002/mar/19/rail031902.html|title=All aboard|author=Kevin Eigelbach|first=Kevin|last=Eigelbach|work=The Cincinnati Post|publisher=E. W. Scripps Company|date=2002-03-19|archiveurl=http://web.archive.org/web/20041114205948/http://www.cincypost.com/2002/mar/19/rail031902.html|archivedate=2004-11-14] At that point the goal of the Museum changed and now focuses on the preservation of the equipment. Tom Holley, former Chairman of the Board, stated "Now the primary purpose of the museum is the collection of the equipment that belonged to the seven railroads then entered Cincinnati."

Pennsylvania Railroad E-8 locomotive #5888 has been undergoing restoration for the past few years. A "theatrical" baggage car (the "Juliet", one of 47 built by the Pennsy between 1917 and 1922) sits on the track beside the locomotive and will serve as a mobile staging area for the renovation. The Museum also has a large collection of Pullman-Standard cars including the "Metropolitan View" built in 1938 for the PRR's "Broadway Limited", and a BM70nb railway post office (PRR #6518) modernized for the same train. [http://broadway.pennsyrr.com/Rail/Prr/Fan/pass_cars.html]

Some of the other equipment includes former PRR #9408, an EMD SW1 switcher [http://www.ole.net/~rcraig/PRSVDemdSWs.HTML] , a preserved Dinky, Brookville BMD 15-ton switcher [http://www.sonic.net/~jayreed/preserved.html] , former Baltimore and Ohio Railroad modern lightweight coach the "La Paz", a preserved troop sleeper, an early Southern Railway business car, and former RI #428 ("El Comedor") dining car.

The museum is open every Wednesday and Saturday and is located at 315 Southern Avenue in the Latonia area of Covington.

References

External links

* [http://www.railfanswelcome.com/Maps/KY/Covington2.htm Map]
* [http://www.cincirailmuseum.org/home.html Museum Site]