Located in the heart of New Jersey, the Whippany Railway Museum is both a railway museum and an excursion train ride. The Museum exhibits railroad history through the restoration, preservation and interpretation of equipment and artifacts. The Museum is a non-profit, independent and fully volunteer operated organization.
The Museum has a large assortment of historic rail cars on display at the museum site, along with historical railroad exhibits and operating model train layouts. The all-volunteer staff at the Museum has a passion for preserving and sharing the railroad heritage of New Jersey and its surrounding areas.
Train rides are operated throughout the year on the all-volunteer, non-profit Whippany Railway Museum’s extensive collection of historic locomotives and coaches. Our train rides offer a unique opportunity to see railroading as it was in the past, and give visitors an experience of New Jersey’s natural beauty.
Our trains run on a portion of the historic Whippanong Trail through the suburban communities of Whippany, East Hanover, Livingston and Roseland in Morris and Essex Counties. The historic locomotive and enclosed coaches are heated and equipped with padded seats. The scenic train ride travels through the remnants of prehistoric Glacial Lake Passaic and passes high above the Passaic River over a steel bridge.
The Museum’s most famous attraction is its “O” gauge model railroad which occupies one of the main floors of the Museum Building. The exhibit area is a representation of a typical North Jersey train station and rail yard, complete with a fieldstone depot, water tank and the Museum’s freight house. The Lionel Trains that thunder down the tracks are a favorite of people of all ages and are sure to bring a smile to every face.
In 1983, members of the Pequannock Valley Transportation Museum (PVTM) began looking for a new location to display their growing collection of railroad memorabilia. The freight house at the Whippany Railway Museum was immediately considered, even though it was in severe disrepair from years of neglect and vandalism. The PVTM obtained permission from the M&E railroad to move the freight house to its current location, and the work of cleaning up the building and restoring it continued until January 1984 when the last of the property was moved down to Whippany.
In addition to the model railroad exhibits, there is a working caboose and other historical train displays. The PVTM also operates the THE POLAR EXPRESS train ride, a 60-minute live production which happens aboard a slow moving train at the museum. The show features scripted scenes, live singing and dancing and a great deal of audience interaction. The show is performed on a regular basis from December through February each year. The ticket price includes a souvenir THE POLAR EXPRESS(tm) ceramic mug.
