The Oswego Railroad Museum Offers:

• An excellent operating layout (24' x 36') of the southern Oswego County area in the 1950's Area
• Many other model and toy train layouts both large and small
• An extensive railroad library

Upcoming Events:

• May 8: 2010 Summer Season Opening
  
  
• May 8-9: National Train Days
  The May 8th date will be Amtrak’s National Train Day celebrating the 141st anniversary of the driving of the golden spike ceremony in Promontory Summit, Utah. The completion of the “Transcontinental Railroad” on May 10, 1869 was celebrated all across the country. We will be having displays on the building of the two rail lines that came together on that important day, collectibles from the 1969 centennial celebration, and videos showing the daily re-enactment ceremony at Promontory, Utah, now a National Park including operating reproduction steam locomotives.

  We will also be celebrating the 117th anniversary of world record speed run of 112.5 miles per hour of the New York Central & Hudson River Railroad #999, 4-4-0 steam locomotive, while pulling “The Empire State Express” between Syracuse and Buffalo. The #999 would end up in service in Oswego and a drawing of it has become the museums logo. Since 1962 it has been preserved at the “Museum of Science & Industry” in Chicago, Illinois.

  
  
• May 15-16: Circus Moves by Rail
  The exhibit will include displays of miniature circus and carnival layouts and circus and carnival trains, as well as circus posters, photos and videos. A 6’x 12’ Playmobil circus will also be on hand for the kids.
  
  
  
• May 22-23: Circus Moves by Rail
  
  
• May 29-31: Military Railroading
  For Memorial Day Weekend we will be honoring the railroads that served us so well during times of war. There will be models and photos showing the role that railroad played during wartime. We will also be showing video documentaries covering the Civil War up to World War II.
  
  
  
• June 5-6: 66th Anniversary of D-Day
  June 6 will be the 66th anniversary of the Normandy Invasion. We will be working in conjunction with the H. Lee White Marine Museum to celebrate this important date. Members of the United States Military Railway Service were rushed in following the Normandy to support the soldiers in their effort to drive the German army from France.
  
  
  
• June 12-13: DL&W & The Dairy Industry
  The museum will be celebrating National Dairy Month and the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad. The exhibit will show how the railroads, such as the Lackawanna, worked with the Dairy industry by building creameries, where farmers would ship their milk in order to have it processed. There will be models and photos of local creameries as well as the railroad cars used to ship the milk and the final products from them. The Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad was formed in 1851, but it was preceded in Oswego, by the Oswego & Syracuse Railroad, which was incorporated in 1839 and opened in 1848. It’s original station built in 1848 still stands on the south side of Utica Street, between 2nd and 3rd Streets. The Lackawanna agreed to lease the Oswego & Syracuse Railroad on March 1, 1869, for a period of 99 years. The Lackawanna had two creameries located between Oswego and Syracuse, at Baldwinsville and South Granby.
  
  
  
• June 19-20: DL&W & The Dairy Industry
  
  
• June 26-27: DL&W & The Dairy Industry
  
  
• July 3-5: American Freedom Train
  Due to popular demand, the American Freedom Train exhibit will be returning to the museum for most of July. The first American Freedom Train was created in 1947 to help celebrate our freedom after World War II. The exhibit includes an O Scale model of the train that would tour the country until 1949. There will also be photos and souvenirs from the train. The second Freedom Train was created to help promote patriotism for the countries bi-centennial celebration and travel the country during 1975 & 1976. The O Scale Bi-Centennial Freedom Train is almost 40’ long, including models of both of the steam locomotives that took turns pulling the train. There will also be photos, videos and souvenirs from the train. We will also have some items from the New York State Freedom Train that toured the state in 1949 & 1950.
  
  
  
• July 10-11: American Freedom Train
  
  
• July 17-18: American Freedom Train
  
  
• July 22-25: Harborfest (Railroad & the Seas)
  This exhibit will tell the history of how the railroads and the shipping industry have worked together through the years. Some railroads actually have their own Maritime Divisions such as the New York Central that used tugboats and barges to carry their freight cars across the Hudson River to New York City. Oswego was home to a total of four coal trestles where the railroads would transfer the coal brought up from Pennsylvania to barges and ships for delivery to ports all along the Great Lakes.
  
  
  
• August: New York Central Month
  On August 9, 1831, the first train ran in New York State between Albany and Schenectady for the Mohawk & Hudson Railroad, which later became part of the New York Central Railroad. Another part of the New York Central, the Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburg Railroad came to Oswego and built the tunnel and bridge in the mid 1870’s, so that it could reach Suspension Bridge, now known as Niagara Falls. The New York Central continued to serve Oswego until 1968, when it was merged with the Pennsylvania Railroad to form the Penn Central Railroad. The museum will celebrate the 137 years of the New York Central with models, artifacts, photos and videos.
  
  
  
• Sept. 4-6: Labor Day (Working on the RR)
  Labor Day Weekend will feature a look at men and women who helped to build and run America’s Railroads through the use of photos and videos.