Connecticut Railroad Museums (2026): A Complete Guide

Last revised: October 6, 2026

Connecticut’s railroad museums are the New Haven’s leftovers, kept by the people who would not let the cars and the buildings go. At East Haven the Shore Line Trolley Museum still runs a mile and a half of the Branford Electric Railway, opened in 1900. At East Windsor the Connecticut Trolley Museum rebuilt track on a piece of the Hartford & Springfield. At Thomaston the Railroad Museum of New England boards trains at an 1881 station and runs them on the old Naugatuck Railroad. Danbury’s museum occupies Union Station of 1903, with more than sixty pieces of equipment in the yard behind it. Willimantic rebuilt a six-stall roundhouse on the foundation at Columbia Junction. South Norwalk kept Signal Station 44, a mechanical tower with sixty-eight Armstrong levers, and the trains on the Shore Line still pass the window.

Railroad Museum of New England collection in Thomaston CT

Part of the Railroad Museum of New England's collection in Thomaston, Connecticut is seen here in July, 2018, including preserved New Haven RS3 #529. Also note New Haven FL9 #2019. Marty Bernard photo.

Hours, open days, and which car is on the line move with the season. Confirm the day before you drive.

On this page: At a glance · Connecticut railroads · East Haven · East Windsor · Thomaston · Danbury · Willimantic · South Norwalk · Essex · Related reading

At a glance

Place	Town	What it is known for	Site
Shore Line Trolley Museum	East Haven	Branford Electric Railway, opened 1900, and nearly 100 transit vehicles. A mile and a half of the original line	shorelinetrolley.org
Connecticut Trolley Museum	East Windsor	Hartford & Springfield Rockville branch. Association founded October 1940. A mile and a half of track the volunteers built	ct-trolley.org
Railroad Museum of New England	Thomaston	Naugatuck Railroad excursions from the 1881 Thomaston station. Founded January 1968	rmne.org · rides
Danbury Railway Museum	Danbury	Union Station of 1903 and a yard of more than 60 pieces. Incorporated March 1994	danburyrail.org
Connecticut Eastern Railroad Museum	Willimantic	Replica six-stall roundhouse on the Columbia Junction foundation, and a 60-foot Armstrong turntable	cteastrailroad.org
SoNo Switch Tower Museum	South Norwalk	New Haven Signal Station 44, in service 1896–1984. Sixty-eight Armstrong levers	sonotower.org
Essex Steam Train	Essex	Valley Railroad excursions on the former New Haven line down the Connecticut River	profile · rides

American-Rails.com does not operate these places and does not sell tickets. Confirm hours before you travel.

Connecticut railroads

The railroad that covered this state was the New York, New Haven & Hartford. Its two parents, the Hartford & New Haven and the New York & New Haven, joined on July 24, 1872. The Hartford & New Haven had been chartered in 1833 and opened between Meriden and New Haven in 1838. The Shore Line, the shore path toward New London and then Boston, was already in the family by lease. Around that trunk the New Haven gathered the earlier companies: the Naugatuck, chartered in 1845 and opened from Bridgeport to Winsted in 1849, leased in 1887 and bought in 1906; the Danbury & Norwalk, chartered in May 1850, and its neighbors, absorbed in 1892; and the inland New York & New England, leased on July 1, 1898. The New Haven’s own history is a list of more than two hundred predecessors. The state map is the Connecticut railroads page.

The New Haven entered the Penn Central at the end of 1968 and was operated with that system from January 1, 1969. What a visitor still sees moving is Metro-North on the Danbury platform and along the Shore Line, and Amtrak past the South Norwalk tower. The museums hold the rest: the trolley lines, the Naugatuck station, Danbury’s Union Station, the Willimantic roundhouse foundation, and the levers at Signal Station 44. The Essex Steam Train is the Valley Railroad’s ride on another piece of the New Haven. Its story is the Essex page, and the current calendar is on the scenic-train guide.

Shore Line Trolley Museum

The Shore Line Trolley Museum is the Branford Electric Railway Association, at 17 River Street in East Haven. The association was incorporated in 1945 to preserve the trolley. The line it operates is the Branford Electric Railway, which opened in 1900. The museum calls that railway the oldest continuously operated suburban trolley line in the United States, and the about page says the Department of the Interior recognizes it as such. The surviving mile and a half, the cars, and the museum are the Branford Electric Railway Historic District, nominated to the National Register in 1983.

The about page counts nearly 100 vintage transit vehicles, and an archive of nearly 51,000 photographs, with books, documents, and the small artifacts of the job: tokens, hat badges, ticket punches. The collection is the point of the place, and the ride is through the woods and over the quarry trestle on the original railroad. Open days and the car assigned that day are on shorelinetrolley.org.

Connecticut Trolley Museum

The Connecticut Electric Railway Association has owned and operated the Connecticut Trolley Museum since October 1940. The association says it is the nation’s oldest incorporated organization dedicated to preserving the trolley era. The grounds are 17 acres along Route 140 at 58 North Road in East Windsor. The right-of-way is a 3.2-mile piece of the Rockville branch of the Hartford & Springfield Street Railway, bought when the association was formed, with the rails already gone. Volunteers built a mile and a half of track and the overhead, and with them the yard, the substation, the barns, and the shop. The ride is a streetcar on that rebuilt railroad. The association posts the days.

Railroad Museum of New England

The Railroad Museum of New England was founded in January 1968 as the Connecticut Valley Railroad Association. Its mission is the railroad heritage of New England, told in the collection and in the operation of the Naugatuck Railroad. The original Naugatuck Railroad was chartered in 1845 and opened in 1849 between Bridgeport and Winsted, along the river. The New Haven leased it in 1887 and bought it in 1906. Regular service north of Waterbury ended in 1995. That same year the museum put the old name back on a railroad of its own. The Naugatuck Railroad was incorporated on June 7, 1995, as a wholly owned subsidiary. The first passenger trains ran in October 1996. Trains operate between Torrington and Waterbury. The boarding station in Thomaston is 242 East Main Street.

A small station went up in Thomaston in 1851. The building passengers use now was constructed in 1881, and the older one became a freight house. The station handled passengers, tickets, and Railway Express. The last passengers were in December 1958. An arson fire damaged the station in 1993. Volunteers have been repairing the masonry, the canopy brackets, the doors, and the windows since the Naugatuck Railroad began running in 1996. Thomaston station was added to the State Register of Historic Places in 2012.

The steam locomotive the museum is raising money to restore is Baldwin 2-6-2 No. 103, built in 1925 for the Sumter & Choctaw in Alabama. It has been in the collection since 1986. The locomotive page says No. 103 is off public view. The museum is raising money to restore it. The equipment list also includes New Haven diesels, among them FL9 No. 2019, and Canadian Pacific 4-6-2 No. 1246. What is on the train any given weekend is a diesel and the cars the railroad assigns. Fares, the ice-cream trains, and the holiday extras are on the museum’s calendar and on the scenic-train guide.

Danbury Railway Museum

Danbury has been a railroad town since May 1850, when the Danbury & Norwalk was chartered. That road and two others became part of the New Haven in 1892. In 1896 a loop track tied the old Danbury & Norwalk to the former New York & New England. Union Station followed, and it opened on July 13, 1903, an L-shaped building the museum describes as the largest station on the New Haven’s New York Division. The waiting room is reached through a brick arch, and the west end of the room has a fireplace. Metro-North trains still pass the curved platform.

The station later sat empty, and so did the yard. In 1992 the city received a $1.5 million ISTEA grant to put the building back to its 1903 appearance. The work was finished in 1995, and the station was dedicated on October 29 of that year. The museum itself was incorporated in March 1994, after Peter Cornwall and John Flower of the Western Connecticut Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society took a proposal to the mayor. The first year was a storefront at 16 Ives Street. In May 1995 the museum leased the yard. In April 1996 it moved into Union Station at 120 White Street and has been there since. The first locomotive, bought in January 1996, was an Alco RS-1 from the Green Mountain Railroad. By the end of that February the yard also had a New Haven NE-5 caboose that had worked the Danbury area.

The homepage and the about page both describe a yard of more than sixty pieces of equipment. The station holds the small artifacts and a research library. The Railyard Local is a short ride on days the museum posts. Those days, and the holiday trains, are on danburyrail.org and on the scenic-train guide.

Connecticut Eastern Railroad Museum

The Connecticut Eastern Railroad Museum occupies the old Columbia Junction freight yard in Willimantic, off Bridge Street. A Trains profile in February 2026 gives the address as 55 Bridge Street. The museum’s own page describes locomotives and cars, vintage railroad buildings, and a six-stall roundhouse reconstructed on the original foundation. Visitors take a guided tour of the grounds. Children, and anyone else who wants the lever, can run a replica 1850s pump car on a piece of rail that was the New Haven’s Air Line.

The same profile names a 60-foot Armstrong turntable, standard gauge, and a New Haven FL9 whose cab a visitor can sit in, plus a restored station, a section house, a freight house, and crossing shanties. The turntable came from the Edaville Railroad in 1994. It is a manual machine, the kind a person walks around. The original roundhouse is gone. The replica is the building on that foundation. What is open, and whether a train is running on the Air Line that day, is on cteastrailroad.org.

SoNo Switch Tower Museum

The SoNo Switch Tower Museum is New Haven Signal Station 44, at 77 Washington Street in South Norwalk. The railroad put the tower in service on July 5, 1896. It closed on November 17, 1984. Inside are sixty-eight Armstrong levers and a mechanical interlocking that once lined a four-track Shore Line main and the single-track branches to Danbury and to Wilson Point. The Western Connecticut Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society, the chapter established at Stamford in April 1953, opened the museum in 2003 with the State of Connecticut and the City of Norwalk.

A visit is the levers and the trains. Visitors throw levers that are locked out of the live plant, and they watch Metro-North and Amtrak pass the window on the railroad the tower used to control. The chapter posts the open days. Check the site for the weekend you mean to go. The tower is the artifact. The ride, if you want one, is down the line at Danbury or on the Shore Line’s own trains.

Essex Steam Train

The Essex Steam Train is the Valley Railroad, on the former New Haven line along the Connecticut River between Essex and the Haddam country. It is an operating railroad with its own collection, and it already has a full page on this site. Schedules, the riverboat connection, and the holiday trains are on the Essex profile and the Connecticut scenic-train guide.

Railroad museums in the United States
New York, New Haven & Hartford · New York & New England · Connecticut railroads · Penn Central
Essex Steam Train · Connecticut scenic train rides
Tourist trains · U.S. railroad history
Neighbors: New York museums · Massachusetts museums

Sources

Shore Line Trolley Museum, shorelinetrolley.org, about and museum-history pages: 17 River Street, East Haven, CT 06512; Branford Electric Railway Association incorporated 1945; Branford Electric Railway opened 1900; the museum calls it the oldest continuously operated suburban trolley line in the United States; nearly 100 vehicles; archives of nearly 51,000 images; Branford Electric Railway Historic District nominated to the National Register in 1983; a mile and a half of the railway survives
Connecticut Electric Railway Association, ct-trolley.org: founded October 1940; the association calls itself the nation’s oldest incorporated organization dedicated to preserving the trolley era; 58 North Road, East Windsor; 17 acres along Route 140; right-of-way a 3.2-mile portion of the Hartford & Springfield Street Railway Rockville branch, purchased in 1940 without track; volunteers built 1.5 miles of track, overhead, yard, substation, barns, and shop
Railroad Museum of New England, rmne.org: founded January 1968 as the Connecticut Valley Railroad Association. About the railroad: original Naugatuck Railroad chartered 1845, opened 1849, Bridgeport–Winsted; regular service north of Waterbury ended 1995; Naugatuck Railroad incorporated June 7, 1995, as a wholly owned subsidiary; first passenger trains October 1996; operation between Torrington and Waterbury. Thomaston station newsletter: 1851 station, current building 1881, New Haven lease 1887 and purchase 1906, last passengers December 1958, arson 1993, State Register of Historic Places 2012. Address 242 East Main Street is on the museum’s excursion pages. Locomotive 103 page and the Sumter & Choctaw page: Baldwin 2-6-2, 1925, in the collection since 1986, restoration campaign posted, off public view. Equipment page: New Haven FL9 No. 2019 and Canadian Pacific 4-6-2 No. 1246 are on the roster list
Danbury Railway Museum, danburyrail.org, about and Union Station pages: incorporated March 1994; first home 16 Ives Street; yard lease May 1995; moved into 120 White Street in April 1996. Danbury & Norwalk chartered May 1850; three railroads into the New York, New Haven & Hartford in 1892; loop track 1896; Union Station opened July 13, 1903. City ISTEA grant of $1.5 million in 1992; restoration completed 1995; dedicated October 29, 1995; museum in the building since 1996. Alco RS-1 purchased from the Green Mountain Railroad in January 1996; New Haven NE-5 caboose followed. Homepage and about page: yard of more than 60 pieces. Metro-North still passes the curved platform. Seasonal ride months on those two pages disagree and are not copied here
Connecticut Eastern Railroad Museum, cteastrailroad.org/museum: off Bridge Street, Willimantic, on the Columbia Junction freight yard; six-stall roundhouse reconstructed on the original foundation; guided tours; replica 1850s pump car on a section of the New Haven Air Line. Trains, February 11, 2026: 55 Bridge Street; 60-foot Armstrong turntable; New Haven FL9; restored station, section house, freight house, and crossing shanties. Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, June 2008: turntable purchased from the Edaville Railroad in 1994. The year the original roundhouse disappeared is disputed in the newspaper record and is not stated above
SoNo Switch Tower Museum, sonotower.org: 77 Washington Street, South Norwalk; New Haven Signal Station 44 in service July 5, 1896, closed November 17, 1984; 68 Armstrong levers; four-track Shore Line and the Danbury and Wilson Point branches; museum opened 2003 with the State of Connecticut, the City of Norwalk, and the Western Connecticut Chapter, National Railway Historical Society. The chapter dates from April 1953. Visitors throw locked levers and watch Metro-North and Amtrak. Open days are on the site
New Haven corporate dates follow the American-Rails New Haven page: Hartford & New Haven chartered 1833, Meriden–New Haven opened 1838, New York, New Haven & Hartford formed July 24, 1872. New York & New England lease, July 1, 1898, follows that company’s page. Penn Central operating date January 1, 1969, follows the Penn Central page. Essex excursions follow the American-Rails Essex page and the Connecticut scenic-train guide

Confirm hours and which locomotive is on the property before you travel.

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