On Saturday, Oct. 20th my wife and I made our annual pilgrimage to the Kentucky Railway Museum to enjoy our free train trip which is part of the benefits of our family membership. It was a beautiful fall day and we spent some time inside the museum and got to see the 3 new model train layouts on display. I believe these are a temporary exhibit while they decide what is going to happen to the building which housed the model trains before the flood damage of 2010. The layouts are very well done and can be operated by the visitor and consist of a Lionel O scale layout, an American Flyer S scale layout, and an HO scale layout.

We made an extra donation to the museum this year since they have been experiencing tight financial times and were surprised to be invited to ride in the Soo Line caboose which was being coupled to the rear of the passenger train. This caboose was built in the later years of caboose use in the 1970s and belongs to a group who lets the museum use it in return for storage. It had old seats from a bus installed which were quite comfortable; or maybe we were just excited to be riding in a real caboose. The caboose was added to give a ride to about a dozen of the fellows that faithfully volunteer their services all year long and we were allowed to ride in the cupola.  Besides the nice ride, we had a chance to visit with the volunteers and even got some rare mileage in as we were shuffled around the yard behind the GE 44 ton center cab switcher. These little guys have twin 380 HP diesel engines and are very functional.

The main line run  was powered by a newly arrived GP7 diesel which started life as a Reading unit and was later sold to Weyerhaeuser Timber Corporation and came to the museum from an equipment dealer as a trade for some old equipment. It seemed to run quite well and did not smoke excessively.

We always enjoy our trips to the Kentucky Railway Museum and appreciate all that they do to keep railroading history available to everyone. They always are grateful for memberships, donations, or visits so please keep them in your thoughts. They can be reached at the Kentucky Railway Museum, 136 South Main St., PO Box 240, New Haven, KY 40051, 502.549.5470, 800.272.0152, info@kyrail.org.