The Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania reminds visitors to its website that it is not the Pennsylvania Railroad Museum; the museum is dedicated to the the entirety of the state’s railroad history, not just the history of the Pennsylvania Railroad. It’s unique collection reflects this broad focus. The museum holds more than 100 historically significant locomotives and railroad cars, half a million photographs and documents, and over 17,000 smaller objects. While the Pennsylvania Railroad Museum is currently closed, visitors can take a virtual 360 tour of the museum’s largest objects– the train cars and equipment.
The museum’s website includes twenty-nine different pieces of equipment users can explore. I do not know anything about trains, so when I confronted the list of tour options, I really did not know what many of them meant. A train aficionado could likely tell you what the difference between an “H6sb steam locomotive” and an “L1s steam locomotive” is, but not me. The only railroad knowledge I have is that which pertains to the 1894 Pullman Strike, so I decided to tour the “Pullman Lotos Club Restaurant- Sleeping Car.”
The virtual tour of the Pullman takes you through six different sections of the train: the berth area, seats, kitchen, men’s restroom, women’s restroom, and the dining car. I really appreciated that each section included the choice of written captions or audio. While the captions are not extensive, they provide enough context to help you understand what you are seeing. The Lotus Club Car, I learned through these captions, was rebuilt in 1936; knowing this helped me better understand the interior design of the cars and envision what traveling on this train would have been like. The staging of the cars, the use of china in the dining car and luggage in the berth section, helped make the 360 tour more immersive. While most of the virtual tour ran smoothly, I could not get the women’s restroom to load. Clicking on the link took me back to the tour of the men’s restroom. This was disappointing as I was interested in comparing the two restrooms.
Those who are especially interested in trains will likely get more out of the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania’s 360 locomotive tours. While the captions do provide some information, coming in with some railroad knowledge would enhance the experience. That being said, going inside a historical train car was still an interesting experience for a neophyte like me. After visiting the Pullman virtually, I feel more inclined to jump at the opportunity to board a historic train if such a chance ever arises.