Medina Railroad Museum

The Medina Railroad Museum in Medina, New York, is one of the most outstanding small-town railroad museums in the United States, housed in the magnificently restored 1905 New York Central Railroad freight house — a 304-foot-long brick structure that is among the largest surviving examples of early 20th-century railroad freight infrastructure in the northeastern United States. The museum’s exhibits focus on the extraordinary railroad heritage of Orleans County and the Niagara frontier region, an area once crisscrossed by the New York Central, Erie, and numerous short-line railroads that shaped the region’s agricultural and industrial development. The collection includes historic freight and passenger cars, cabooses, maintenance-of-way equipment, and a remarkable assemblage of railroad artifacts, photographs, and archival materials related to the railroads of western New York. A beautifully maintained HO scale model railroad depicts the railroad scene around Medina in the steam era with extraordinary detail and craftsmanship. The museum operates seasonal excursion trains from the historic Medina depot on the New York Central main line, offering roundtrip excursions through the apple orchards, vineyards, and Niagara Escarpment scenery of Orleans County. Special events include fall foliage trains, holiday excursions, and railroad history programs that draw enthusiasts from throughout the Great Lakes region.