Ohio Railway Museum

The Ohio Railway Museum occupies a narrow strip of ground on Proprietors Road in Worthington, a northern suburb of Columbus, and the shape of that ground is the whole point: the museum sits on the railbed of the Columbus, Delaware & Marion Railway. The museum's own history page dates that line to 1901 and says it carried passengers and freight until 1933. When the interurban died, the right-of-way stayed, and it is what allows a museum of this size to run trains at all rather than simply park them. The Norfolk Southern Sandusky District runs immediately alongside the property, so a visit here regularly comes with an unscheduled bonus: a modern freight rolling past the far side of the fence while a hundred-year-old wooden interurban sits still on the near side. A public YouTube live stream titled Sandusky District - Live Train cam, from the channel The Traveling Gandy Dancer, watches that same line around the clock.

The organisation is older than the site. According to the museum's About page, it began in 1945 when a group of enthusiasts called the Central Ohio Railfan's Association met at the old Columbus Union Station; by 1948 the group had established itself in Worthington. Wikipedia adds that the body was incorporated on 22 August 1950 and formally took the name The Ohio Railway Museum on 17 February 1993, and gives its reporting mark as ORMX. Its first acquisition set the tone for everything since: Ohio Public Service interurban car No. 21, a wooden combination passenger-baggage car built in 1905 by the Niles Car and Manufacturing Company of Niles, Ohio, which is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Wikipedia records that the car was acquired in 1947 and moved to the grounds in 1948.

The museum describes itself, in its own words on its About page, as one of the oldest railway museums in the United States; a press release it issued on 10 May 2025 uses the phrase one of the country's oldest railway museums. Wikipedia frames it more precisely as one of the oldest organizations involved with the preservation of railroad equipment and railroad history in North America that includes an operating railroad line. That same 2025 press release announced a development plan called Full Steam Ahead: Vision for the Future, underpinned by a lease agreement with Norfolk Southern Corporation. The plan calls for 2,900 feet (884 m) of new track, a doubling of the museum's original main line along the CD&M right-of-way as far as Indianola Park, a three-track car barn, a replica interlocking tower, a single-stall trolley barn, a maintenance building, and the restoration of the old PRR freight depot, the Silcott Scale House and the Worthington passenger depot. It is an all-volunteer non-profit, and the pace of the place reflects that.

The equipment is largely outdoors and much of it is approachable on foot, which suits both wide establishing shots and close detail work. Norfolk & Western No. 578 is the obvious subject: at 90 feet 9 inches (27.66 m) over the tender it needs distance, so a wider lens and a low angle along the running boards works better than trying to fit it in from the side. The wooden interurban No. 21 rewards the opposite approach, with quartered oak panelling, the original controller position in the baggage compartment and the lineside telephone all worth close frames.

The train ride itself gives moving shots along the CD&M alignment, and the Norfolk Southern Sandusky District beside the property means real freight can appear in the background of a museum photograph. Light is the main constraint: with the museum open Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., the sun is high through the middle of the visit, so the last hour before closing gives the softest light on the equipment. Restoration areas and work zones are active, so ask a volunteer before stepping off marked paths, and treat the adjacent Norfolk Southern right-of-way as strictly off limits.

The collection is unusually strong in Ohio electric traction, which is the part of American railway history that vanished most completely. Ohio Public Service No. 21 is the anchor: 50 feet 6 inches (15.39 m) long, 60,500 pounds, four General Electric 263A motors of 65 hp (48 kW) each, a General Electric K-34D2 controller and a Westinghouse 3817 air compressor. It is single-ended and driven from the baggage compartment, where an early telephone survives that a crew could hook over a lineside wire to reach the dispatcher. Inside, the finish is quartered oak, with a smoking section seating twelve and a main passenger section seating thirty-four. Alongside it the museum holds the last CD&M interurban parlor car, No. 501, known as the Red Bird, named by the museum itself as one of its standout pieces.

The streetcars fill in the city half of the story. Kansas City Public Service No. 472 is a four-wheel DuPont Type C single-truck car built in 1900 by the Brownell Car Company, 30 feet (9.1 m) long, seating twenty-four, donated in 1956. Columbus Railway Power and Light No. 703, a Columbus streetcar built in 1925 by the G. C. Kuhlman Car Company, is 45 feet 3.3 inches (13.8 m) long, weighs 36,620 pounds (16,610 kg), seats forty-eight, and rides on Canadian Car & Foundry 3550 trucks with 26-inch wheels; it is under restoration to working order. Illinois Terminal Railroad No. 450 is a Presidents' Conference Committee car built in 1949 by the St. Louis Car Company, 50 feet 5 inches (15.37 m) long and 42,680 pounds (19,360 kg), acquired in 1964, and it worked St. Louis to Granite City suburban service before preservation.

Steam is present, though static. Norfolk & Western No. 578 is a 4-6-2 Pacific of class E2a built in March 1910 at the American Locomotive Company's Richmond Works, and it is the last survivor of the twenty-six E2a locomotives N&W owned. With its tender it measures 90 feet 9 inches (27.66 m) and weighs 285 tons (259 t); it stands 15 feet 9 inches (4.80 m) tall on 70-inch (1.8 m) drivers, carries 26 tons of coal and 18,000 US gallons (68,000 L) of water, and was assigned to the Scioto division running into Columbus from 1917 to 1944 before finishing on the Norton branch and retiring in December 1958 after forty-eight years. Norfolk & Western donated it to the museum on 12 February 1959. Beside it sits Marble Cliff Quarries No. 1, an 0-4-0 saddle tank built in 1924 by the Vulcan Iron Works, 20 feet (6.1 m) long and 40,000 pounds (18,000 kg) on four 33-inch (840 mm) drivers; donated in working order in 1954, it was the engine that dragged No. 578 onto museum property. It was cosmetically restored in 2006, loaned out, and returned to display in 2018.

This is a small, volunteer-run site, and it does not pretend otherwise. The museum opens one day a week in season, staffed by people who built and restored what you are looking at, which is the trade-off: fewer polished interpretive panels, far better answers to questions. A testimonial the museum publishes on its own homepage puts the scale honestly, calling it not the biggest or most extensive heritage railroad or museum out there while praising the equipment and the staff's knowledge, and noting that the ride is a little short.

Admission covers the grounds and all standard train rides for the day. As of the 2026 season the museum states that rides run aboard Canadian National coach No. 5060, currently pulled by U.S. Army No. 7178. That matters, because the overhead is down: the museum's own progress update reports that spring storms brought down five of the old poles and took the overhead system out of service, that the trolley wire and supporting infrastructure were removed, and that the hardware is being reconditioned for installation on new poles that are now in place. Plenty of third-party pages still promise a streetcar or trolley ride; check the museum's channels before travelling if riding an electric car is the reason you are going.

Beyond the ride, visitors walk through cars and around the equipment, and the depot houses a display room of railroad artefacts alongside the ticket office and restrooms. Cab rides and speeder rides are sold separately in the depot, and extra ride tickets are available there too. Restoration is visible rather than hidden: track and bridge work, structural stabilisation of the Section House and the Scale House, and pole and overhead reconstruction are all in progress across the property. Expect an active work site as much as a finished exhibit.