The Danbury Railway Museum is a cool museum dedicated to the history of the railroads in CT and New…read moreEngland. It is located inside the fully-restored Danbury Union Station, built in 1903. Here's the scoop on this unique CT museum:
The museum is open Saturdays and Sundays only, from 10AM to 4PM. One thing is for sure, you won't get lost trying to find the place, because all you have to do is look for the giant Uncle Sam statue! This statue, standing 38-feet tall, is tallest Uncle Sam in the world, and was once located at the Great Danbury State Fair, until the fair closed in 1981.
There is a sizable lot for parking on site. You'll start by walking into the old train station building, where tickets are $7 each. Once inside, you can take a look around at the various artifacts, photo displays, model railroads, and other locomotive memorabilia. I thought the model train sets they had were super cool! There's also a play area for kids. The one thing I will say is that there seemed to be a lot of "clutter" everywhere... random boxes near the displays, etc. I think that takes away from the displays, and that storing these items out of sight would give the museum a nicer feel.
After looking around the building, you can go out the back door into the rail yard, where you'll find over 70 pieces of railroad rolling stock. There was a staff member who showed me around the yard, and gave me a little history on each of the pieces that were on display. He was very knowledgeable and friendly. Note that this museum is volunteer run, which I thought was cool. Even though the museum boasts 70 pieces or rail road stock, not all of the pieces are available to see, as the museum selects a few pieces that are rotated in and out throughout the year. And, at least when I went, not all of the pieces that they had on display were open to go inside. The couple that were open were seriously cool though! My favorite was the mail car, which was used to pick up, sort, and transport mail back in the day. The staff member told me that from April-September, the museum offers train ride tours of the rail yard, which are about 30-35 minutes in length.
After seeing all of the trains up close and personal, stop in the gift shop before heading out! Overall a pretty cool and interesting museum, and for $7 it's well worth it!