Wilmington Railroad Museum — Attraction in Wilmington

Really great railroad museum, especially for a small town like Wilmington.. the caboose and some of the exhibits of historical items and clothing as well as a station office were interesting for adults or older children who have a little more of a desire to learn, and the wooden model trains and electric exhibits were great for our 2 year old son and would be fun for kids probably from 1-5 years old, especially if they love trains.

Would be a five star review except for a few things:

1. the full scale steam engine is a bit rusted and needs some love and care, and honestly some modernization to maybe make it a little more interactive for visitors especially kids (most of the knobs and levers don't move much and even just throwing a Bluetooth speaker in it to play information and sound effects like they have in the caboose would be a huge improvement.

2. many of the button activated interactions on the model trains were non-functional. It's maintained by some staff and a lot of volunteers and model trains are notoriously tricky to keep running even without the level of complexity of these models, but putting signs over inoperative buttons would help manage expectations for small children and if it is a function of the systems malfunctioning throughout the day and needing to be reset, soliciting patrons when the enter the museum to notify them of a malfunction would help. It would also signal to the patrons that the museum really cares about keeping the full operation going.

As it is: our son had two hours of fun and was still not ready to leave. So that would be a 5 start review from a parent... But they lose a star for it feeling a bit rundown and in need of some care and...

This museum was a surprise highlight of our vacation. Equipped with an old steam locomotive, classical caboose, relics from the early days of the railroad, and model trains, my son could barely contain his excitement for our visit. My wife and I came in without expectations but the displays awed the whole family!

The authentic cars let you take a step back in time and show the children how transit began, how far it has come, and the mettle it took to build up the transit lines. The exhibits include tools and equipment used to build the railroads, a station and luggage of passenger cars, uniforms and ledgers of those who worked the railroad, and even the posh China of the dining cars. Our kid walked away understanding how big of a role transit in general and the railroad in specific played in settling the West, moving goods and people, and sustaining war efforts from the Civil War to the World Wars.

A passionate core of about six volunteers have spent over a decade on intricate models of the railway based on 1950s Eastern SC. The attention to detail and sheer number of different displays underscores the love poured into this place. They have a camera they attach to one of the model cars and at first glance, the video looked like a real train ride due to the attention to detail. They even made a background out of photographs of the Wilmington area with photos cut out precisely with an exacto knife. Best of all, the little ones get to press all the buttons to control the trains.

Defintely...

Drove 11 hours total trip down to Wilmington from our home and was SO excited to go to the railroad museum as my 2 year old son is emphatic about trains. Without posting any information online, the place closed early to get new carpet - why couldn’t this happen after 5pm?!?! And we got there 15 min before they were “closing” and the lady wouldn’t let us run through so our son could see anything even for that 15 min and even after explaining we were from far far away and literally came to Wilmington from our beach stay in Morehead city just to see the railroad museum. If a tourist attraction can’t manage carpet repairs and communicate effectively and have any type of compassion for people, it doesn’t deserve one star. Really sad. The employee was a generic state employee mindset type of worker that literally said “when the state approves new carpet you get it Because it may be 5 more years until you can get it again. “ bravo, NC. Shining...