Vermont Railroad Museums (2026): A Complete Guide

Published: October 16, 2026

Vermont’s railroad collection is at the Shelburne Museum, south of Burlington. Electra Havemeyer Webb founded it in 1947. The town’s 1890 station, moved onto the grounds in 1959, stands with Central Vermont 4-6-0 No. 220 and the private car Grand Isle. The bookable ride is the Green Mountain Railroad, part of the Vermont Rail System.

Central Vermont Railway 4-6-0 220 and 1890 depot at the Shelburne Museum

Central Vermont Railway 4-6-0 #220 (Class I-7-a) preserved at the Shelburne Museum, along with the original 1890 CV depot. The steam engine was donated to the museum in 1956. Museum photo.

Ride dates, including the Champlain Valley Dinner Train, are on the Vermont scenic-train guide. American-Rails does not sell tickets. A Steamtown collection began at Bellows Falls in 1964. It is not a Vermont museum now.

On this page: At a glance · Vermont railroads · Shelburne · Bellows Falls · Related reading

At a glance

Place	Town	What it is known for	Site
Shelburne Museum	Shelburne	Founded 1947. The 1890 station, Central Vermont No. 220, and the private car Grand Isle	shelburnemuseum.org · 6000 Shelburne Road

Vermont railroads

The Vermont Central Rail Road was incorporated in late 1843. Charles Paine’s purpose was to carry the state’s milk, cheese, and marble, and to tie Vermont to the rest of New England. The first section, about 25.5 miles between Bethel and White River Junction, opened in the summer of 1848. The line through to Burlington opened on December 31, 1849. The company went bankrupt in 1896 and came out in 1898 as the Central Vermont Railway. It stayed under Canadian National until 1995, when the New England Central Railroad bought it. The original route is still in service. The Central Vermont account is its own page.

The Rutland, which called itself the Green Mountain Gateway, shut down in 1961. The Interstate Commerce Commission approved abandonment on January 29, 1963. In August of that year the state bought what remained. The Vermont Railway began in 1964, on the Burlington–Bennington line and the Whitehall–Bellows Falls line, and it still runs the Green Mountain Railroad’s passenger trains. The state page has no mileage box. It says Vermont railroads operate over 500 miles today, against a peak near 1,100. The freight names on that page are the Vermont Railway, the New Hampshire Central, CSX on the old Pan Am, the St. Lawrence & Atlantic, and the New England Central. Class I service returned in 2020, when Canadian Pacific bought the Central Maine & Quebec in June and CSX announced the purchase of Pan Am.

Amtrak’s Vermonter runs through St. Albans, and the Ethan Allen Express runs through Rutland. The state account is the Vermont railroads page. Neighbors with their own museum pages are New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New York, and Maine.

Shelburne

The Shelburne Museum is at 6000 Shelburne Road. Electra Havemeyer Webb founded it in 1947 and filled the grounds with buildings she moved from around New England. The railroad station is the original Shelburne depot. It was built in 1890 near the center of town, to a design by the New York architect Robert Henderson Robertson, and it served Central Vermont and Rutland passengers. Webb and her family used it on trips to and from New York. Passenger service ended in 1953. Six years later the station was taken down and rebuilt on the museum grounds. The rooms today are a stationmaster’s office, separate waiting rooms, telegraph instruments, and maps. A reproduction freight shed, built for the museum in 1963, holds hand tools, handcarts, and signal lanterns.

Locomotive No. 220 is a 4-6-0 built in 1915. On the Central Vermont it was class I-7-a, one of four Schenectady engines numbered 218–221, and the museum calls it the last coal-burning ten-wheeler the railroad used. It handled both freight and passenger trains, and it hauled specials for Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover, Franklin Roosevelt, and Dwight Eisenhower. The Central Vermont retired it in 1956 and gave it to the museum. Visitors can go aboard. The class and the rest of the Central Vermont steam story are on the Central Vermont steam roster. Beside the engine is the private car Grand Isle, built about 1890 and bought by the museum in 1960. The sidewheel steamboat Ticonderoga is also on the grounds. It is a Lake Champlain boat, not part of the railroad exhibit. Hours are the museum’s to post.

Bellows Falls

F. Nelson Blount founded the Steamtown Foundation in 1964 at Bellows Falls, with Union Pacific Big Boy No. 4012 and Nickel Plate No. 759 among the engines. Blount died on August 31, 1967. The collection is now Steamtown National Historic Site in Scranton, Pennsylvania. The account is on the national museums page. Bellows Falls is not a current Vermont railroad museum. Do not go there expecting the engines.

Sources

Shelburne Museum, collection essays for locomotive No. 220 and Grand Isle, and for the railroad station and freight shed, and the 75th-anniversary building timeline.
American-Rails.com, Vermont railroads, last revised September 7, 2024, and the Central Vermont steam roster.
American-Rails.com, national museums page, for the Steamtown Foundation at Bellows Falls.
American-Rails.com, Vermont scenic-train guide, last revised August 13, 2026. Ride dates stay there.

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

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