Boothbay Railway Village Museum — Attraction in Boothbay

I traveled far and made a specific and purposeful trip to the Boothbay RAILWAY Village Museum to see one thing and I couldn’t be more disappointed.

This railway museum has two goats, just over a dozen structures you can enter, a smelly barn filled with uninteresting antique vehicles, a model railroad with a lot of stationary trains and “push here” buttons that do nothing, there’s a coal pit for kids to play and get dirty in as well as an old narrow gauge railroad kids can crawl over.

They also have the Merci Rail Car. A gift, from France, filled with homemade items and thank you letters as a response for all the aide we sent them during WWII. Except, you wouldn’t know that, because the Merci Rail Car, the one actual rail car this “railway museum” has, DOESN’T HAVE ANY SIGNAGE!

You’ve got signs for the old cars. You’ve got signs for a wooden sled horses pulled to clear snow. You’ve got signs for old houses. But the one actual piece of history there that matters, nothing.

To hear dad’s tell their kids, “hey look at the old train car” when it’s so so so much more than that is honestly just insulting and disrespectful.

Boothbay Railway Village Museum doesn’t deserve the piece of history they have.

When leaving, the person collecting admissions very rudely didn’t care that I was disappointed with my visit to the museum and was very quick to snap “no refunds”.

This place is not good, there isn’t much to see, less to do, the train ride is slow, reeks of kerosene from the tractor-train engine, and is only a half-lap ride from the back of the facility to the front, or vice versa.

Save your money and take your family elsewhere. If you’ve got a train-loving kid, the Seashore Trolley Museum down in Kennebunk is worth it. They have a lot of trains, the facility has a lot to see, they’re all labeled and respected, and the staff is friendlier. If you’re looking for cars (since this railway museum pushed the antique car barn multiple times) the Maine Classic Car Museum in Arundel, the Owls Head Transportation Museum in Owl Head, and the Seal Cove Auto Museum in Seal Cove, are all better collections and examples of automotive history (and I don’t remember feeling nauseous from the smell in any of them).

Couldn’t be more disappointed with my visit to the Boothbay Railway Village Museum and their treatment of...

It was an interesting event loved the little venues with locally made stuff. There was a train ride that we bought tickets for not too expensive $5 a person over 5yrs old it was cute and the kids enjoyed it. The one thing that was very upsetting to our family was that we showed up 15 mins before the next train due to having a big party. While we were lined up behind the red line the guy at the ticket window asked up to back up due to the other passengers on the current train needing space to get off. So we backed up a few steps, a few minutes later the same guy again yelled at us to move back so we took a couple more steps back. At this point there was no more room to move back, but again the guy yelled at us again at that point my sister asked him loud enough for him to hear where would you like us to move you've asked us 3 times and all 3 times we moved so tell us where to go. He replied you don't have to get nasty about it. While still waiting 2 other groups of people were close to the edge but he did not ask them to move. The only difference between us and those two groups is that we have many different ethnicities in our group unlike the others. I want to think/hope that was not the reason for the rude customer service but again that is the only difference between the groups. I didn't get his name but he was an older, overweight gentleman with white hair. Please if you encounter this same behavior leave a review because he made the whole...

This is a cute little railway village with lots of small exhibits and buildings to explore. Kids will enjoy running around the property and looking at exhibits of old tractors, vintage cars, a model railroad and other recreations of village life such as a schoolhouse, post office etc. The train ride is a bit of a disappointment lasting only 6 minutes in a slow circle around the village but kids will enjoy it nonetheless especially if they sit in the antique passenger car. Most volunteers and workers were friendly except for the guy in the ticket booth who seemed to enjoy yelling at people. First I was issued a stern warning when my 5 year old grandson entered the property while I was purchasing tickets (literally took one step outside the door to scope the place out). Then when the train arrived he kept yelling at passengers on the platform to stand back even though every single person was behind the red line. Finally he started to scream at passengers who boarded without his permission even though the conductor had called "All aboard" multiple times. I hope he gets the help he needs because volunteer or not he is single-handedly capable of ruining a pleasant experience for children and...