Within my chosen geographical area which excludes North America, most of Europe and Japan, the occurrence of genuine railway museums as opposed to the odd preserved steam locomotive or tourist railway is quite rare. Here you will find a list of known links which describe those I either know about through personal experience or through submissions to my website or which have been located by web searches. Some are no more than (steam) locomotive parks, others have barely a steam locomotive to be seen. It will be a useful quick check list for readers making short visits. I have also included a note of known steam tourist operations where appropriate for Africa, Asia and parts of South America, the latter are covered in more detail in the relevant continent page. By and large the links are to pages which are in English, although these days a web-based automatic translation will normally produce something good enough to get started during a visit.... Please email me with additions and corrections to the address at the end, include a sensible and appropriate subject line to help avoid vanishing into the spam filter.

There are certain umbrella organisations whose sites may be helpful, particularly IATM (International Association of Transport and communications Museums) - see http://www.iatm.ws/ - railways are necessarily a small sub group. Others are regional and are noted as appropriate.

Another recommended link - http://www.innvista.com/culture/travel/rail/mindex.htm - as of September 2007 it was last updated in February 2007 and less complete than this site for non-mainstream areas, but necessarily it may be updated, but it will be a good source for the USA, Canada, Australasia and Western Europe.

As always Wikipedia is worth a look but when I checked this page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_railway_museums it had far fewer entries in my areas than are on these pages.

This page covers railway museums in the Americas, either scroll down the page or click on a continent for a further menu - the non-European list is now kept separately.

Americas

Antigua (updated 9th July 2013)

James Waite pointed me at http://www.antiguanice.com/v2/documents/Newsletter%203rd%20qtr%202011final%20pdf.pdf which relates how the Museum of Antigua and Barabuda will take responsibility for the remaining 17 locomotives out of 26 delivered to the island. Of these five are steam and one of them, a Brazil class (with dummy boiler), will be restored cosmetically. The others are 4 petrol and 5 diesels. Many readers will recall that 'Joan' on the Welshpool and Llanfair Railway in Wales came from the Gunthorpe sugar estate here in the early 1970s. Presently the loco looks even worse than the one on St. Kitts! (6th February 2013) However, Thomas now reports "http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Museum-of-Antigua-and-Barbuda/107508883031?sk=photos_stream has 5 pics of the steam loco under restoration at the PWD for display at Betty's Hope Museum. This is supposedly ASF No. 4 MARION (Kerr Stuart 'Brazil' class 1178/1911) - added 9th July 2013..

Argentina

There are occasional public and private steam specials  - see Americas section of this site. Ferroclub Argentino maintain the Escalada Railway Museum which was formerly the main running shed serving Plaza Constitucion station in Buenos Aires, there is a collection of broad gauge locomotives and rolling stock present. See http://www.ferroclub.org.ar/cdp_escalada.html (added 13th April 2018) and http://www.porlosrielesdelsud.com.ar/club/englifcl.html. (Museum data added 10th December 2007, latter link broken by 1st November 2018), there are pictures of some of the stock included in Fabrice Lanoue's report of his April 2011 visit. He also visited the standard gauge Colonel Lynch museum (18th May 2011).

Boliovia

Many retired steam locomotives have been stored at the depot in Uyuni for many years (as opposed to the famous elephants' graveyard), now a selection has been moved to form a museum next to the railway station, opening in July 2016. For Spanish language reports check out the official announcement and a YouTube Clip (17th October 2016).  Very little restoration work appears to have been done and the choice of locomotives seems a little strange with several duplicates and 'foreign' examples on show.

Brazil

There are a number of tourist railways and museums - see the ABPF websites (national - www.abpf.org.br/ and various regional ones particularly the São Paulo one www.abpfsp.com.br/), also a list on this site. Particularly noteworthy is the museum for the funicular railway at Paranapiacaba (see http://www.abpfsp.com.br/museu_ferroviario_paranapiacaba.htm) and  the operational narrow gauge railway and museum at São João d'El Rey in West Minas.

A further list of museums is to be found on the site of ANPF Associação Nacional de Preservação Ferroviária http://www.anpf.com.br/turismo_ferroviario_int.htm (link dead by 12th April 2018) which claims to be up to date to July 2008 and supplants an earlier 2004 version. (added 21st October 2008).

Canada (added 18th January 2013)

Exporail, the Canadian Railway Museum, is at Saint-Constant (Québec) - the website is http://www.exporail.org (added 18th January 2013).

Other major museums in the country are:

• Alberta Railway Museum at Edmonton - http://www.albertarailwaymuseum.com/

• Beisker Railway Museum, Alberta - http://www.alberta2005rail.com/ (Link dead by May 2023)

• Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) Museum at Castlegar - http://www.stationmuseum.ca/

• New Brunswick Railway Museum (NBRM), Hillsborough - http://www.nbrm.ca/

• Revelstoke Railway Museum, British Columbia - http://www.railwaymuseum.com/

• Saskatchewan Railway Museum at Saskatoon - http://www.saskrailmuseum.org/ (Link dead by May 2023)

• Winnipeg Railway Museum, Manitoba - http://www.railwayheritagecanada.ca/resources.htm (link broken by December 2021)

For a list of links to heritage sites in the country see http://www.railwayheritagecanada.ca/resources.htm (link broken by December 2021), be prepared to use their home page http://www.railwayheritagecanada.ca (link broken by December 2021) if the link goes down.

Chile (two links added 13th April 2018)

There is railway museum in Santiago - see http://www.lcgb.org.uk/html/santiagomuseum.htm for a report of a visit. 

The shed at Temuco has also functioned as a museum - http://museosferroviarios.wordpress.com/2010/09/10/museo-ferroviario-de-temuco/, these days it is known as the Pablo Neruda National Railway Museum - https://www.interpatagonia.com/temuco/pablo-neruda-railway-museum.html ((link added 13th April 2018).

The shed at Baquedano has also functioned as a museum - http://museosferroviarios.wordpress.com/2010/09/03/museo-casa-de-maquinas-de-baquedano/.

There are occasional public and private steam specials - see Americas section of this site.

Colombia

There are occasional public and private steam specials - see Americas section of this site.  

Cuba

There is a developing Railway Museum at Cristina Station in Havana - mention of it is made in trip reports (2005-7) in the Americas section of this site. Trevor Heath has sent some pictures of restoration in progress (4th December 2009).

The former Marcelo Salado Mill is now host to 'Caibarién Museo Agroindustria Azucerra'. Not strictly a pure railway museum (1st September 2-014). .

There are occasional private steam specials.

Ecuador

There are occasional private steam specials - see Americas section of this site.  

El Salvador (added 20th January 2016)

A new railway museum has been established in the former railway workshops, see http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=1227805&page=4 (6th November 2015). For background read James Waite's 2012 report. It formally opened in December 2015 and is open Tuesday to Sunday from 09.00 to 17.00 (20th January 2016). Clive Hepworth was here in February 2016 and comments (21st February 2016) "The new railway museum is superb. Officially closed on Monday's the museum opened especially for a private visit organised by commercial director Esteban Rodriguez and led by Ingrid Leiva. Both display the sort of passion and enthusiasm that was seen at the Turistren operation in Colombia. The museum covers a huge site on the former national railways headquarters that includes workshops, roundhouse, operating tranverser and turntable, a running line, printworks, archive stores, museum display areas, soccer and basketball pitches, refreshment coach, photographic displays and more! Most of the display notices and information have also been translated into English by Ingrid. This is a venture that deserves every success."

Thomas Kautzor reports that CEPA opened its latest railway museum at Sonsonate's Barrio El Angel station in December 2017. Plinthed 4-6-0 No. 8 and the passenger coach were repainted, EMD GA8 No. 863 was moved from the main station and repainted as well, and railcar No. 17 (under repair at San Salvador at the time of our visit in February 2016), freshly painted in silver, was brought there and used to run trains between the museum and Sonsonate's main station. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oC6vxSyDrr4

Guatemala

The former station at Guatemala City now serves as a museum. The nearby workshops ought to be a museum. Thanks to Colin Martindale for reminding me that I had left this out - despite visiting it myself in 2004!

Mexico

This list was culled from Wikipedia, I would appreciate visitor reports, necessarily these links may not be reliable.

Museo de los Ferrocarriles de Yucatán, Mérida, Yucatán - http://celorio.com/mfy/roster.htm see also Keith Smith's report of a May 2008 visit.

Ferrocarril Interoceanico heritage railway & museum. Cuautla, Morelos - http://www.rinconestudiantil.com/morelosnatural/Webs/Turismo/Tren_escenico.htm (link broken by 25th October 2016)

Museo Nacional de los Ferrocarriles Mexicanos, Puebla, Puebla - https://museoferrocarrilesmexicanos.gob.mx/ (Link dead by May 2023, Thanks to Stephan Mack for this).

Museo Tecnológico de la Comisión Federal de Electricidad (MUTEC), Mexico City

Museo del Ferrocarril de Torreón, Torreón, Coahuila

Paraguay

The former station at Asunción has become a railway museum, see Steve Cossey's report from 2015 (14th August 2020).

David Pendlebury visited in May 2017 and you can read his report here:

http://www.lcgb.org.uk/html/paraguay2017link.htm 

Of course, the former workshops at Sapucai is effectively a museum too, it is covered in the report above (all this, 10th April 2018.).

Peru

There are occasional private steam specials - see Americas section of this site.

John Pickston (16th August 2008) has suggested Tacna Railway Museum. He says "I do not know the current situation, however I expect that it is probably unchanged from my visit in 1998, when I was there on a Dorridge Travel Tour. The station/museum is enclosed and gated, like many others in South America, with stock displayed in the open air. I recall that all the exhibits were rather dusty! Tacna station is described as the "The Railway Museum of Peru". This location is in the far south of the country, close to the border with Chile, so it tends to get forgotten by most tours." There are some pictures here - http://fotos2trenesenlaweb.blogspot.co.uk/ (link added 1st April 2013).

USA

By and large I don't cover museums in North America, but good friend James Waite has sent me a very nice report of his visit to on of the lesser known, the Gold Coast Railroad Museum in Miami (28th January 2012). James previously posted a report (1st November 2011) on narrow gauge Maine survivors which included a visit to the museum at Portland.

James has also now sent a report of his visit to the Colorado Railroad Museum, which is at least predominantly narrow gauge! (30th January 2012) and also a further very special narrow gauge museum, the Nevada State Railroad Museum at Carson city (5th October 2017) which James revisited in December 2018 (10th January 2019). On the same trip he also visited the Orange Empire Railroad Museum, Perris, California (10th January 2019).

There are several reports of US narrow gauge operations on my narrow gauge pages.

Venezuela

Wayne Weiss points out that a number of steam locomotives are preserved in Museo de Transporte, Parque del Este, Caracas, which is a short walk from Los Caminos station on the Metro system. See http://www.automotriz.net/museo-del-transporte/, (link amended 29th October 2013 but broken by 1st November 2018), there are 13 steam locomotives. Some exhibits are from Puerto Rico - brought for a failed tourist railway project including a rare Glover. There are also a Sentinel and an extremely unusual Bell 0-4-0T. The latter is an American loco similar to a Sentinel using Stanley Steamer designs and concepts, it may be the only one of its kind left in the world, see http://www.gearedsteam.com/bell/bell.htm (details of exhibits added 24th November 2007).

I have long wanted a first hand account and Steen Larsen has now provided one (29th October 2013), to which Glen Beadon has added some comments and corrections (18th September 2014) followed by a comment on the steam mock up (4th October 2014).