Sheboygan Railroad Museum

09/01/2026

Notice of Special Tuesday Night Open Hours for September 1st, 2026:

Sheboygan Railroad Museum Open Hours for Tuesday, September 1st, 2026.

The First Tuesday of September is Business Meeting Night, followed by the Museum being open to the public for these adjusted hours:

We have construction going on in several places in the layout room (so, please pardon our dust), but feel free to come out and visit during the following hours:

Business Meeting: 6 pm - 7:30 pm;
Open to Public: 7:30 pm - 9:00 pm.

Sheboygan Railroad Museum
1001 N 10th St.
Sheboygan WI 53081
920 783 6248

08/19/2026

"Distributed Power" is definitely a thing these days, and additional locomotives added throughout a long freight train go back to the steam days (then, usually right in front of, or behind, the caboose in addition to extra locomotives added on the front.

With the coming of diesels, freight trains grew longer, and -- especially in the mountains of the west, it was not uncommon to see multiple locomotives on the front, two or three addtional engines working in the middle of the train, and another one or two pushing, on the end.

Once all manned by crews, these "distributed" locomotives adapted to advancing technology: radio control for them -- tucked into the extra-long nose of a fitted locomotive, or perhaps in a special car added to the engines in the middle/end -- let one crew in the front control the whole power. (This took skill as long trains might have part of the train going uphill, part going downhill, and part in a curve and part not, at any given time -- so the physics of thousands of moving tons of freight and equipment could be daunting).

Later, newer technology made the "snoot" locomotives and remote robot control cars unnecessary.

Today a crew may sit in the cab of a single locomotive operating a mile-long train. At the other end, where the caboose once was found, a second locomotive or two, perhaps facing backwards, is pushing, as well. Nobody is on board, as the single hand on the throttle at the front controls both 200-ton behemouths.

*** Here on this small home HO model railroad, "distributed power" is achieved by placing a free-rolling unpowered engine in the train. (Care must be taken that the wheel assemblies/trucks turn freely, and do not catch the frame of the locomotive above them -- and that the engine wheels turn easily enough so that there is not too much drag).

If you really want to see "distributed power done right, come visit our Museum on a Tuesday night or an Open Saturday. Multiple modern hi-tech HO locomotives with DCC power operate as one as they are spaced throughout the train.

08/03/2026

From The Page Administrator

We apologize for those who saw a photo of our building with a "for sale" sign posted here a few days ago.

The post was marked "From Our History Files", and the next line listed the photo date as from 2009. It then titled the post, "The Day We Nearly Lost the Railroad Museum" (or something such as that). This was then followed by a paragraph, set in the past, telling of this sad day and then indicating that this was not the end of the story (implying the "happy ending" part would follow).

Some apparently just noted the photo and came to the conclusion it was from the present year and that the museum was going to close.

Not to worry. The Museum is not for sale, and we have no plans of closing.

We have hundreds of historical photos in our archives, going back decades, of the Society and the Museum's past adventures, and have posted such now and then as an ongoing feature. The "for sale" post was the first picture of an intended series as to how we almost had to sell the building back in 2009, how the fabulous train layout we had up to that date had to be scrapped and removed, and how our fortunes reversed and we were not only able to save the building, but to build back from that low point to everything our visitors see today.

I removed the original post, and the SSSMRE again apologises for any confusion. We will be looking for an improved way to still share parts of our rich history with viewers without throwing anybody "off the track"....

07/21/2026

"Shovel Nose". That's what they called the design of one of the earliest "diesel" streamliners, the Burlington Pioneer Zephyr.

Designed to look sleek and very un-steam like, the shiny train was named for the Greek/Roman god of the wind.

As time progressed, engineers who ran these "shovel noses" complained of being uncomfortable of being so close to the front of the locomotive; others said the ongoing sight of endless crossties slipping under the train below the windshields was making them sleepy.

The result was to redesign the locomotive so that the windshields were moved up to roof level (then shoved back to form a streamlined "nose" with the headlights below them.). The air intakes were moved off the nose to the upper sides of the locomotive.

For years, Burlington passenger locomotives were painted with a red or black stripe across the noses under the headlights (to mimic the former location of the windshields) -- and, for a while, "fake" air intakes on either side the mimic the original locations of the "real" ones on the earlier Shovel Nose locomotives.

07/16/2026

More double-level action on the "Sheboygan and Western" HO layout at the Sheboygan Railroad Museum.

07/15/2026

Action on Both Levels at the Sheboygan Railroad Museum.

07/15/2026

Someone's Workin' on the Railroad -- New Roundhouse Project.

06/23/2026

Guest Appearance of a Union Pacific streamliner -- on the Lakeshore O Gaugers layout display at the local EAA chapter's 2026 Wings & Wheels Father's Day Event this past weekend!

06/23/2026

Rangely Oilfield Display / Lakeshore O-Gaugers' Model Train Modular Layout / Wings and Wheels 2006 at Sheboygan County Airport.

The two modern pumping units run on variable DC power; the older unit with a derrick is modeled after a much earlier prototype and has a shallow-well pumping unit with balance weights on the walking beam rather than attached to the arms and cranks as the others have.

(And, believe it or not, I got the plastic dinosaurs from the actual Rangely, Colorado oilfield company that this module imitates!)

06/21/2026