American Passenger Train History Museum

04/16/2026

Railking delivery!

04/16/2026

Yesterday, the museum took delivery of our new-to-us Railking car mover. It came to us from a grain operation in eastern Nebraska. We are thrilled to have a car mover from this century that parts are still available for! If you or someone you know is looking for a Shuttlewagon, reach out as our old unit is available!

02/10/2026

This weekend Bob, Justin and Zander road tripped to Kenosha, WI to pick up a Chicago, Milwaukee and St Paul depot safe. We estimate this safe is from the early 1900’s and will be right at home in the depot ticket office!

11/13/2025

11/13/2025

APTHM is excited to announce that we have crossed a major milestone in the renovation of the depot. In collaboration with NIACC’s Building Trades Class for the 2025-2026 school year we have completed most of the framing for new walls in the depot. This step will allow us to start roughing in electrical, plumbing and heating/cooling systems in the building. This is a major achievement and we are extremely grateful to the wonderful students from NIACC who helped make this dream a reality!

10/21/2025

Our museum inhabits the grounds of the old Charley Western. Enjoy these photos of our railroad in its previous life!

10/14/2025

Please enjoy this post!

This weekend volunteers replaced a broken post in our new storage building. Additionally paint work was done on some of our Milwaukee Road cars as we attempt to squeeze out a few more work weekends before winter sets in.

Thanks to L & J Industries Inc. for fabricating our new post base, always a pleasure working with your team!

06/12/2025

We are excited to announce that we have been awarded a $5,000 grant for windows and paint on our Illinois Central Diner-Lounge 4202! We are always on the lookout for grant opportunities and are grateful to the NRHS for awarding us this grant!

MOORESTOWN, N.J. — Thirty-one organizations have received $150,000 in funding from the National Railway Historical Society’s 2025 Railway Heritage Grant program, the organization announced Wednesday, June 4. The funds go toward preservation of historic railroad artifacts and media. “The NRHS H...

06/11/2025

Our president Bob, updating the Rotary Club on our ongoing efforts with the depot and car restoration.

This week's program was presented by Bob Moen with an update on the restoration of the depot and the American Passenger Train History Museum project. Since the building was moved to its new home, the next phase of the project will create a trailhead with a public bathroom for the Charley Western Trail and a unique train car museum with community meeting space. They have been busy working on the building's interior as well as ongoing restoration of the train cars. The group is still seeking grants and private funds to complete the project. See project updates and details on the American Passenger Train History Museum page!

12/24/2024

On the last work weekend of 2024, volunteers spent the weekend working on the depot. As we started work renovating the depot, we discovered that the depot didn’t have a stitch of insulation in the walls. With the renovation we are insulating the entire building. Due to the height of the baggage room we had to remove a board at the midpoint in the wall for our insulation contractor to access the entire wall. The old tounge and groove wood was a pain, but volunteers were able to remove the boards which will allow access to the interior of the wall. Unfortunately the majority of the wood removed is not salvageable, but we have a pretty cool idea on what we will put back later in the renovation.

Happy holidays to you and yours and we will see you in 2025!

12/10/2024

The main switch leading to our shop yard was degraded to the point that we put our Sante Fe diner on the ground late last season. Fast forward to now and our track department has been busy replacing this switch. Here’s a dump of photos from the last few months. This in all in preparation for delivery of our newest car, which will arrive by truck this winter and be stored in the shop. More to come on that when the car starts is journey to Iowa.

11/05/2024

This past weekend marked the ribbon cutting of the Charley Western Trail extension in conjunction with our fall depot open house. Over 100 people toured the depot and a selection of passenger cars, catching a glimpse of what our museum will feature when open.

This successful open house garnered over $13,000 in donations to the next phase of depot renovation. For those who weren’t able to stop out, here are a few images of the progress made so far. In addition to concrete floors in the basement and the baggage room, Dean Snyder Construction also poured our basement stairs, installed all the under floor plumbing for basement and trailhead restrooms and insulated most of the existing walls. As part of this phase of construction, we have also procured all of our mechanical equipment so we can lock in pricing and avoid future cost increases on these materials.

Thank you for coming out and sharing the depot with us, we cannot thank you enough for your continued support!