The non-profit Friends of the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania was chartered to provide support for education, restoration, and fundraising projects (1983). A successful capital fund drive yielded a 45,000-square-foot addition to the main exhibit hall that was reminiscent of an arched urban train shed of the late 19th century (1995). Gradually, the 1915-era “Golden Age of Railroading” Street Scene was constructed indoors, with the addition of Steinman Station, a re-created early 20th-century passenger depot (1988); Stewart Junction, an interactive railway education center for all ages (2000); and a furnished streetscape of five-period building vignettes (2004-2010). To better preserve a growing collection, a fully equipped restoration shop was added (1999). The Museum’s front entrance was remodeled, with a new lobby atrium and Museum store (2007), geothermal heating and air-conditioning were installed (2011), and new exhibits were added (2020).
Today, the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania features a world-class collection of more than 100 historically significant locomotives and railroad cars – made and/or operated in Pennsylvania – as well as a collection of more than half a million photographic images and documents, and nearly 20,000 smaller artifacts, including tools, uniforms, tickets, station signage, telegraphy and signaling equipment, works of art, and many other items related to railroads serving the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
