National New York Central Railroad Museum — Attraction in Elkhart

The have a lot of good information that is presented in a way that makes it interesting to view.

I took my 3.5 year old twin niece and nephew once and bought the (very reasonable priced) annual membership. We have gone twice now and they love it and still ask to go back!

There is a space for children to explore dramatic play in being a train conductor themselves. They can dress up, and interact with a (child) life-size train. There is a ticket booth, and train space to play in.

They also have a wooden train table (actually 2, a fairly large one and a smaller one) to play with wooden trains. They have a huge variety of trains and train piece to build sets however children choose. They also have a lego train building table.

There is an entire room with a model train set up. And I don't know about other train loving children, but my nephew could sit in there and watch the trains from many different angles (and they have step stools!).

Lastly though they do not sell food, they DO have a train car with tables and it was the perfect spot to stop and eat their lunches at while watching REAL trains pass by outside.

This is a great place for anyone to check out...

What a hidden gem!! Took my kids with another family (ages 7,6,4,3,3), on a Saturday, not busy at all. A smallish museum in what looks like an old train station (I didn't get to actually read a ton about the museum because...kids), but there is several nice exabits on the National New York Train line, a big play area with legos, train set to build, real train tracks to build, and a kid size train to play in. There is a huge model train that we spent a lot of time watching with an scavenger hunt of items to find in it. Then outside there was many old trains, one you got to go into, a train ride that was nice, and had more great info and took you past more old train cars. There is a small gift shop and a train car you can eat your packed lunch in, that also had coloring pages, train books and a small play area, it was such a fun morning. There is a monthly story time as well. I would come back here again in a hurry. I would come back and pay just to let the kids play on a rainy or snowy day. Such a cute, fun and...

Though pretty far away from the Hudson river's water level route that most think of when thinking about the New York Central, this place is a treasure trove of information and history about one of America's greatest railroads. We went on a weekday and had the place almost all to ourselves, and had a great time discussing history with the volunteers, one in particular who showed us around and once we let him know that we knew a decent amount about trains and railroad history, let us know some of the lesser known facts that you won't be able to hear anywhere else. The gift shop has only railroad timetables, calenders, and books that are are fantastic value. They have a diesel locomotive that you can go in to see the engine and the cab. This museum also has one of only 2 preserved NYC steam locomotives, but has been out in the elements for decades and is in need of some love. So please visit this museum to support the preservation of...