New York Railroad Museums (2026): A Complete Guide

Last revised: October 10, 2026

New York kept pieces of the New York Central, the Erie, the Lackawanna, the Ontario & Western, the Delaware & Hudson, and the Long Island in depots and yards that still open their doors. The Empire State Railway Museum is in the Ulster & Delaware station of 1899 at Phoenicia, with Lake Superior & Ishpeming 2-8-0 No. 23 in the barn. Medina’s museum is the New York Central freight house of 1905. The New York Transit Museum fills a former Brooklyn subway station. On Long Island, G5s No. 35 is at Oyster Bay and G5s No. 39 is at the Railroad Museum of Long Island. The Central New York Chapter’s GG1 is No. 4933, at Solvay.

Which days Medina, the Rochester museums, the Kingston trolley, and the Adirondack and Catskill excursion lines sell a ticket is on the New York scenic-train guide. Confirm the museum doors on each site before you drive.

Sumter and Choctaw 2-6-2 No. 103 at the Empire State Railway Museum in Middletown, New York, in the 1970s

Sumter & Choctaw 2-6-2 No. 103 at the Empire State Railway Museum in Middletown, New York, in the 1970s. The locomotive is now owned by the Railroad Museum of New England. John Stern photograph.

On this page: At a glance · New York railroads · Phoenicia · Medina · Rochester · Transit Museum · Long Island · Central New York · Dunkirk and the west · Depots · Kingston · Related reading

At a glance

Place	Town	What it is known for	Site
Empire State Railway Museum	Phoenicia	Ulster & Delaware station of 1899. Lake Superior & Ishpeming 2-8-0 No. 23, Alco, January 1910	esrm.com
Medina Railroad Museum	Medina	New York Central wooden freight house, 1905, at 530 West Avenue	medinarailroadmuseum.org · rides
New York Museum of Transportation	West Henrietta	Rochester-area trolleys and interurbans, with the Rochester & Genesee Valley museum	profile
Rochester & Genesee Valley Railroad Museum	Industry	Erie depot. The museum dates its work from 1971	rides
New York Transit Museum	Brooklyn	City transit equipment in a former subway station	Brooklyn
Railroad Museum of Long Island	Greenport and Riverhead	Long Island G5s No. 39, Altoona, 1929	No. 39
Oyster Bay Railroad Museum	Oyster Bay	Long Island G5s No. 35, the other engine from the last public steam trip	Oyster Bay
Central New York Chapter, NRHS	Martisco, Central Square, and Solvay	New York Central depot of 1881 at Martisco. GG1 No. 4933 at Solvay	GG1 roster
Alco-Brooks Railroad Display	Dunkirk	Boston & Maine 0-6-0 No. 444, Brooks, 1916, at the Chautauqua County Fairgrounds	Dunkirk
Trolley Museum of New York	Kingston	Founded 1955. About a mile and a half on the old Ulster & Delaware yard	rides

New York railroads

The Erie reached the Hudson in the middle of the nineteenth century. The New York Central assembled the Water Level Route. The Delaware, Lackawanna & Western came over the Southern Tier. The New York, Ontario & Western was abandoned in 1957 and left depots rather than a railroad. The Delaware & Hudson still has its name on the Adirondack line’s history, and the Long Island Rail Road is a commuter railroad with two of its G5s Ten-Wheelers in museums. John F. Stover put the state’s 1920 mileage at about 8,390 route miles. What the museums keep is the part of that map a person can still walk into. A fuller account is on the New York railroads page.

Phoenicia

The Empire State Railway Museum was founded in 1960 and has been in Phoenicia since 1983. The building is the Ulster & Delaware station of 1899, one of the small frame depots that survived on the Catskill line in its original place. The waiting room, the agent’s office, and the freight room hold photographs, a telegraph, and a scale layout of the railroad as it was. The museum posts a warm-season schedule.

The steam locomotive on the property is Lake Superior & Ishpeming No. 23, a 2-8-0 built by Alco’s Pittsburgh works in January 1910 as the railroad’s No. 9, serial 46939, and later rebuilt and numbered 23. The museum has had it since the middle of the 1980s. The work since 2020 has been a cosmetic restoration. The engine is in the barn at Phoenicia. It is not a locomotive the museum is firing.

Sumter & Choctaw No. 103, the Baldwin 2-6-2 of 1925 in the photograph, was at the museum’s earlier Middletown site in the 1970s. The Railroad Museum of New England owns it now.

Medina

The Medina Railroad Museum occupies the New York Central freight house at 530 West Avenue. The railroad began the building in 1905, replacing a small stone station, and the wooden house that resulted is about 301 feet by 34. Local plants, including the Heinz pickle works, shipped through its doors for decades. Martin Phelps is the founder the museum names. Inside are railroad artifacts of western New York, fire equipment, and a long HO layout the museum gives as 204 feet by 14.

Excursions leave from the building on the old Falls Road in the warmer months, including the seasonal specials. Those dates are on the scenic guide. The museum posts its own open hours. The passenger depot of Medina sandstone, completed in 1908, still stands in town and is a separate building from the freight house.

Rochester

The New York Museum of Transportation in West Henrietta keeps streetcars, interurban cars, and the paper of Rochester’s electric lines, and it runs rides on the grounds when it posts them. The Rochester & Genesee Valley Railroad Museum, affiliated with it, has worked since 1971 at the Erie depot in Industry. The scenic guide dates that station to 1909. The Industry collection is locomotives, cars, and the depot itself. Public rides there, including the seasonal trains, are on the scenic guide.

New York Transit Museum

The New York Transit Museum is in a former Brooklyn subway station. The collection is the city’s own: subway cars, elevated equipment, streetcars, and the signs, uniforms, and models that go with them. It is the place in the state where the story is the transit system rather than a steam railroad. The museum posts its days. Occasional nostalgia trips on the subway are event tickets, and they are not a scenic railroad.

Long Island

The Long Island’s last public steam trip, on October 8, 1955, left Hicksville behind G5s Ten-Wheelers No. 35 and No. 39. Both engines survive. No. 35 is at the Oyster Bay Railroad Museum, in the town whose branch the Long Island still serves. No. 39, built at Altoona in 1929, is at the Railroad Museum of Long Island, which keeps sites at Greenport and Riverhead. The engine’s own page is Long Island G5s No. 39. Greenport is the end of the Main Line that the museum’s rolling stock shares with the railroad. Each museum posts its open days.

Central New York

The Central New York Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society keeps two station museums and one electric locomotive. Martisco is the New York Central’s brick depot of 1881, a Victorian station on the Auburn Road with the chapter’s paper and artifacts inside. Central Square is the union depot the Ontario & Western and the New York Central shared. The chapter posts the seasons.

The chapter’s GG1 is Pennsylvania Railroad No. 4933. In Amtrak years this engine carried number 926. The survey printed on the GG1 page places it outdoors at Solvay. It is a separate display from the two depots.

Dunkirk and the west

Dunkirk built locomotives. Alco’s Brooks works was here, and Boston & Maine 0-6-0 No. 444 was one of them: class G-11b, outshopped in 1916, and sold in 1952 to the H. E. Fletcher Company in Westford, Massachusetts. The company gave it to the Dunkirk Historical Society in 1986. It stands at the Alco-Brooks Railroad Display on the Chautauqua County Fairgrounds, with a Delaware & Hudson boxcar of 1907 and a New York Central caboose of 1905. The society posts the hours.

The Western New York Railway Historical Society keeps the Buffalo, Rochester & Pittsburgh brick depot in Orchard Park, which the society dates to 1912, near the old eastern end of that railroad. Salamanca’s rail museum is the restored Buffalo, Rochester & Pittsburgh depot in that railroad town. In North Tonawanda, the Niagara Frontier Chapter of the NRHS uses the Erie freight house the chapter dates to 1922. Jamestown’s Erie station is the large passenger building the city kept, used for tours and events on the days the organization posts. Buffalo’s Heritage Discovery Center tells the city’s industrial, maritime, and railroad history in one building.

Depots

Hyde Park’s railroad station is the New York Central depot of 1914, a small museum of the Hudson line and the town. The Chester Historical Society preserves the Erie depot among the town’s other buildings and posts a warm-season schedule. North Creek’s museum is the Delaware & Hudson depot, and the story it tells includes the night Theodore Roosevelt came down from Mount Marcy to this station. Roscoe’s Ontario & Western museum is a division of that railroad’s historical society, in a town the O&W created as a resort stop. Each group posts its own days.

Kingston

The Trolley Museum of New York was founded in 1955. It runs an operating streetcar on about a mile and a half of track at Kingston, using the former Ulster & Delaware yard for equipment and the ride. The calendar is on the scenic guide. The museum posts the rest.

Sources

Empire State Railway Museum, esrm.com. Founded 1960. In Phoenicia since 1983. Ulster & Delaware station of 1899. Lake Superior & Ishpeming No. 23: Alco Pittsburgh, January 1910, serial 46939. The museum’s note of April 6, 2025, on the locomotive’s record: cosmetic restoration since March 2020.
Photograph of Sumter & Choctaw No. 103 at Middletown in the 1970s, John Stern. The engine is a Baldwin 2-6-2 of 1925 and is owned by the Railroad Museum of New England.
Medina Railroad Museum, medinarailroadmuseum.org. New York Central freight house, construction begun 1905, 530 West Avenue. The museum’s dimensions: about 301 by 34 feet. Excursion dates stay on the scenic-train guide.
Long Island G5s No. 35 at the Oyster Bay Railroad Museum and No. 39 at the Railroad Museum of Long Island. Last public steam, October 8, 1955, Hicksville. No. 39 was built at Altoona in 1929. The engine’s page is the companion article.
GG1 No. 4933. Central New York Chapter, NRHS. The November 2024 survey on this site’s GG1 page places it at Solvay. In Amtrak service the engine carried number 926. Martisco depot, the chapter’s 1881 date for the New York Central station. Central Square, the Ontario & Western and New York Central union depot.
Boston & Maine No. 444, class G-11b, 0-6-0, Alco Brooks works, Dunkirk, 1916. Sold in 1952 to H. E. Fletcher. Donated in 1986 to the Dunkirk Historical Society. Chautauqua County Fairgrounds.
New York Museum of Transportation, the existing profile. Rochester & Genesee Valley Railroad Museum at the Erie depot in Industry, the scenic guide’s 1971 and 1909. Trolley Museum of New York, founded 1955, Kingston. New York Transit Museum, Brooklyn.
John F. Stover, about 8,390 route miles in New York in 1920, as the scenic-train guide prints the figure. Hyde Park New York Central depot, 1914. Orchard Park, the Western New York Railway Historical Society’s 1912 date for the Buffalo, Rochester & Pittsburgh depot. North Tonawanda, the Niagara Frontier Chapter’s 1922 date for the Erie freight house.

Confirm hours and which locomotive is on the property before you travel. American-Rails.com does not sell tickets.

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