Delaware Railroad Museums (2026): A Complete Guide

Last revised: October 5, 2026

Delaware’s railroad museums are small, and they sit on railroads that are still easy to explain. The First State put a locomotive on the New Castle & Frenchtown on September 10, 1832. The Delaware Railroad then ran a stem down the peninsula, and the Pennsylvania Railroad spent the next century hauling peaches, oysters, and passengers over it. Up in the north, the Baltimore & Ohio held a mill branch in the Red Clay Valley. What survives as a place to visit is that branch, now the Wilmington & Western, plus two preserved Pennsylvania Railroad buildings and a small-town depot at the southern edge of Sussex County.

Wilmington and Western 2-6-0 92 in the Wooddale Cut on the Red Clay Valley line

Wilmington & Western 2-6-0 #92 in the Wooddale Cut. Canadian Locomotive Company built the Mogul in 1910 as Grand Trunk #1017. It was the railroad’s first steam locomotive. Ed Kennedy photo.

On this page: At a glance · Delaware’s railroads · Wilmington & Western · Harrington tower · Felton station · Selbyville · Related reading

At a glance

Place	Town	What it is known for	Site
Wilmington & Western Railroad (Historic Red Clay Valley)	Greenbank	Operating museum on the old B&O Landenberg Branch. Steam: 4-4-0 #98, 2-6-0 #92, 0-6-0 #58. Station museum at Greenbank	wwrr.com · profile · rides
Harrington Railroad Tower (Greater Harrington Historical Society)	Harrington	1920 Pennsylvania Railroad interlocking tower, 1926 class N5 caboose, watchman’s shack. Norfolk Southern still passes	ghhsociety.org
Felton Railroad Station (Felton Community Historical Society)	Felton	1868 Italianate brick depot of the Delaware Railroad. National Register, July 13, 1981	state marker
Selbyville Museum	Selbyville	Breakwater & Frankford depot, opened as a town museum on June 18, 2005	town page
Delaware Seaside Railroad Club	Selbyville	Model-railroad museum. Layouts in O, S, HO, N, Z, and G	club site
Delaware Public Archives exhibit	Dover	Tracks, Towns, and Transformation, opened September 10, 2026, on view through July 2027	state announcement

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

Delaware’s railroads

The New Castle & Frenchtown made its first locomotive-drawn trip on September 10, 1832, a short portage between the Delaware River and the Elk River route toward Baltimore. The Delaware Railroad, chartered in 1836, was the line that actually knitted the state together. Construction stalled for years. The rails reached the Felton area in 1856, and the road was through the state by 1859, aimed at the farm country and, soon enough, at a connection down the Delmarva Peninsula. The town of Felton took its name from Samuel N. Felton of Philadelphia, elected president of the Delaware Railroad in 1865.

The Pennsylvania Railroad made that north–south stem its Delmarva Division and reached the peninsula’s farms, canneries, and the port of Norfolk through the New York, Philadelphia & Norfolk. Harrington grew up as a junction on that railroad, where the main line met the branch toward the Atlantic beaches. Passenger trains left the small depots in the early 1950s. Penn Central and then Conrail inherited the property. Norfolk Southern freights still use the old Delaware Railroad past Felton and past the Harrington tower.

The other surviving railroad with a public face is in the north. The Wilmington & Western opened on October 19, 1872, from Wilmington to Landenberg, Pennsylvania, after a charter in February 1867 as the Delaware & Chester County and a rename in March 1869. A foreclosure produced the Delaware Western in 1877, and that company merged into the Baltimore & Philadelphia, a Baltimore & Ohio subsidiary, in February 1883. The B&O cut the branch back to Hockessin in the late 1950s. The 10.2 miles from Greenbank to Hockessin are what visitors ride now.

Wilmington & Western Railroad

Historic Red Clay Valley, Inc. began weekend steam trains on the Landenberg Branch in 1966, leasing the line from the B&O and using the old Wilmington & Western name. In August 1982 the organization bought the branch from the Chessie System for $25,000. Former Baltimore & Ohio SW1 #8408 came with the purchase. Trains board at Greenbank Station, 2201 Newport Gap Pike. The station has a small museum, a gift shop, and the semaphore that starts each trip. That signal is a General Railway Signal Model 2A, returned to service at Greenbank on May 6, 2012.

Three steam locomotives are the collection people come to see. The railroad’s own steam page is the place to check which one is available.

4-4-0 #98. American Locomotive Company, Schenectady, January 1909, construction number 45921, built for the Mississippi Central. Paulsen Spence bought it in 1947 for the Louisiana Eastern collection. It reached Wilmington in 1964 and returned to service in October 1972. Thomas C. Marshall Jr. donated it to Historic Red Clay Valley in December 1977. The railroad pulled it from service in 2017 for the required 1,472-day inspection.
2-6-0 #92. Canadian Locomotive Company, Kingston, Ontario, 1910, built as Grand Trunk class E-8 #1017. Rebuilt with superheaters and piston valves in 1913. It became Canadian National class E-10a #919 in 1923 and was renumbered 92 in 1951. Historic Red Clay Valley bought it in 1959, and it was the first steam locomotive on the tourist railroad. The railroad lists 63-inch drivers, 170 pounds of boiler pressure, and a weight near 142,000 pounds. It is stored, awaiting restoration.
0-6-0 #58. Baldwin, 1907, best known for its years on the Virginia Blue Ridge Railway after earlier work for the Atlanta, Birmingham & Atlantic. It is the switcher in the steam stable.

Service stopped in February 2025 for equipment, track, and bridge work. Tourist trains resumed on October 30, 2025.

Harrington Railroad Tower

The Greater Harrington Historical Society was founded in May 1977. Its railroad museum is the Pennsylvania Railroad interlocking tower on Hanley Street, two blocks from the society’s main building on Fleming Street. A tower stood at Harrington by 1909. The frame building visitors walk through replaced it in 1920 and governed the Delmarva main line and the branch toward Rehoboth Beach. Operators worked it until Conrail closed the tower on December 3, 1981. The society’s account is that it bought the building in 1990 for one dollar.

On the same grounds are a Pennsylvania Railroad class N5 caboose, built at Altoona in December 1926, and a crossing watchman’s shack moved in from south of town. The society’s docent manual describes the tower as the last interlocking tower on Delmarva open to the public. A renovation of the complex, put at $130,000, was finished in 2021. Norfolk Southern freights still pass the site. The society has posted visits by appointment and on the third Sunday of the month. Call before you go. In September 2026 the society lent a Pennsylvania Railroad lantern, a conductor’s uniform, and an original Delaware Railroad stock certificate to the state archives exhibit in Dover.

Felton Railroad Station

The Delaware Railroad built the Felton depot in 1868, a one-story brick station in a plain Italianate style: low hipped roof, round-headed openings, and a bow window facing the platform. It replaced a frame depot a few blocks south, where the railroad crossed Main Street, and it was sited to pull the new town plan northward. Passenger trains stopped into the early 1950s. The borough restored the building for the 1976 bicentennial. It went on the National Register of Historic Places on July 13, 1981.

The Felton Community Historical Society organized on September 17, 1989 and fitted the depot out as a local museum. A plaque in the station dedicates that museum, on June 4, 2005, to Edie Hemphill, a charter member who served as president. Norfolk Southern still runs past the door. In 2024 the society said it was working to put the museum back on regular public hours. Treat a visit as something to arrange, and use the state marker page and the town as the check.

Selbyville and a model-railroad club

The Breakwater & Frankford Railroad reached Selbyville in 1872. North of town the line ran through Frankford, Dagsboro, and Millsboro to a connection at Georgetown. The road later sat inside the Delaware, Maryland & Virginia, a Pennsylvania Railroad property, and the peninsula stayed in that family through the Penn Central years. Much of the branch mileage is gone. The town remodeled the depot in 2004 and opened it as the Selbyville Museum on June 18, 2005, during Old Timers Day. It stands at Railroad Avenue and West Church Street, under the water tower, and the collection is town history and railroad paper, photographs, and objects. The town posts limited hours and asks visitors to call town hall before making the trip. Admission has been free.

A separate organization, the Delaware Seaside Railroad Club, keeps a model-railroad museum at 36668 DuPont Boulevard in Selbyville. The club runs layouts in O, S, HO, N, Z, and G, and it takes a modular S-gauge layout out to local events, including the Harrington society’s caboose day. It is a clubhouse museum of miniature track, and the club posts its own open hours.

In Dover, the Delaware Public Archives opened Tracks, Towns, and Transformation: How the Railroad Changed Delaware on September 10, 2026, 194 years after the New Castle & Frenchtown’s first locomotive trip. The show uses maps, photographs, records, and loaned objects, and the state scheduled it to remain up through July 2027. It is an archives exhibit, at 121 Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard North, and the announcement listed it as free.

Railroad museums in the United States
Delaware scenic train rides · Wilmington & Western profile
Tourist trains · U.S. railroad history
Neighbors: Pennsylvania museums · Maryland museums

Sources

Wilmington & Western Railroad, steam-locomotive page and Greenbank Station page (wwrr.com): builders, purchase years, #92 and #98 status, semaphore in service May 6, 2012
Wilmington & Western corporate outline: Delaware & Chester County charter, February 1867; rename, March 1869; opening to Landenberg, October 19, 1872; Delaware Western, 1877; merger into the Baltimore & Philadelphia, February 1883; Historic Red Clay Valley weekend service, 1966; purchase from Chessie, August 1982, $25,000, including B&O SW1 #8408
Delaware Public Archives, historical marker KC-105, Felton Railroad Station: 1868 Italianate depot, passenger service into the early 1950s, restoration 1976, National Register July 13, 1981; Samuel N. Felton
National Register nomination, Felton Railroad Station (81000191), and the Edie Hemphill dedication plaque (society chartered September 17, 1989; museum dedicated June 4, 2005)
Greater Harrington Historical Society docent manual (2024): society founded May 1977; tower built in the early 1920s; Conrail closed it December 3, 1981; purchased for one dollar in 1990; Altoona N5 caboose, December 1926; renovation finished 2021
Town of Selbyville, Selbyville Museum page: Breakwater & Frankford, 1872; depot remodeled 2004; opening June 18, 2005
Delaware Seaside Railroad Club (delawareseasiderailroadclub.com): gauges and Selbyville clubhouse
State of Delaware, September 4, 2026: archives exhibit opening September 10, 2026, through July 2027; Harrington loans
Delaware News Journal, October 3, 2026: Greenbank Station museum and gift shop; fall 2026 leaf rambles on the calendar

Photograph from the American-Rails.com collection, credited above. Confirm hours, admission, and which locomotive is under steam before you travel.

Facebook X Pinterest Tumblr Reddit WhatsApp Messenger