Wilmington Railroad Museum
Come see what you can discover about the railroad history of Wilmington
The engineer shows you how to dress for work, what he had to study and learn, and some of the tools of his trade - no shorts, t-shirts or flip-flops here!
The Brakeman's tools were important to securely couple cars and keep them connected safely.
Imagine the pleasure of fine dining aboard a rolling restaurant, complete with specially designed china, glassware, silver, and linens.
Route map of North Carolina Railroads in the 1860s. In red, the Wilmington & Weldon was a vital link between the port of Wilmington and Virginia, moving people and goods to and from the last open port of the Confederacy.
Station agents did something of everything to for the railroads - booked passengers, checked baggage, recorded goods & freight, packaged the mail for pickup, inspected areas up and down the line, set up signals, decoded telegraph messages, passed orders on to passing trains, and much more.
Set in the 1940s, the agent's office holds a shoeshine stand, scale, and a coal stove to heat the small country station.
Wilmington was a headquarters town for the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad, and our office display (set for the 1920s) shows off vintage equipment and surroundings used by thousands of office workers over the years.
No desk phone, no computer, no work cubbies, no cell phones, no electronic records or email (also, no air conditioning).