Sheboygan Railroad Museum

05/16/2026

...but it works better with "G" (Garden) Gauge!

05/11/2026

The Late, Great Train Station

For a hundred years or more, every American small town that had a railroad had a train station.

Usually found downtown, these buildings were the local face of the mighty railroad to the individual towns which they served.

Along with being a waiting room for passengers and a gathering area for local less-than-carload freight, the station was the office (and, sometimes, the home) of the local railroad station agent.

This man knew people of the town personally. It was he who sold tickets to passengers and handed up train orders to engineers and conductors. It was also he who was the railroad's ear to the local merchants and industrialists from whom local freight business came.

He drummed up business and shook hands. His connection to the huge railroad was his telegraph key (later, telephone). He kept track of moving trains and was the dispatcher's auxiliary eyes and ears.

As time passed, consolidations came, and his job and building became obsolete.

As roads improved and air travel became safe and trusted, he had less freight and passengers to deal with. The passenger side of his building became home many times to maintenance equipment and personnel.

As railroads consolidated and merged, his job and building often became superfluous, giving way to a competing railroad across town that now was part of the same company that his was.

As "less than carload" freight went to trucks, he no longer shipped in little Jimmy's new bicycle. His "Railway Express" small package business went to newer companies such as UPS and FedEx.

Finally, improving technology led to "Central Train Control" and other such things in that he no longer set switches and logged passing trains. That was done by people in a bunker in a distant city running transcontinental railroads from a huge central location.

As the men and women retired, the buildings hung on for a while. Some became offices and restaurants and bus depots. Some just faded away, until lack of maintenance led to their removal.

But the very nature of the industry that employed was once the hub of the downtown -- the railroad station and agent -- had evolved to the point that this local institution joined the steam locomotive and the freight train caboose as a fond but increasingly distant memory.

04/24/2026

Our N-Gauge line is now working again, with the new bridge installed! At our last Tuesday work night, builder Joe Frisbe ran a twelve-car train successfully around the layout and that worked, also! (There are still a few minor bugs to be addressed, but today was the light at the end of the tunnel for getting this layout back into service!)

As for Kathy P., she is an all around helper here at the Museum, as are our many other volunteer members at the SSSMRE.

04/20/2026

Layouts Tour of the Sheboygan Railroad Museum Spring 2026 Open House

04/20/2026

Too Close For Comfort!

Some humorous footage from the O-Gauge Figure 8 temporary train setup at our recent Open House!

04/19/2026

04/19/2026

04/18/2026

President Leo and his module-moving mini-dolly trolley!

04/17/2026

Cartoon by Ken Bailey.

04/17/2026

A Few Photos.....from the Metro Model Railroad Club show in Cedarburg last Sunday. Both the SSSMRE/Sheboygan Railroad Museum was there (with the G-Gauge layout), and our sister group, the Lakeshore O-Gaugers (with the Kiddie Layout).
..as well as a number of other clubs and groups represented, some of which are pictured here.

04/02/2026

Our History, Continued: The Family Railroad Expo!

Throughout the 1990's, the SSSMRE (Parent Organization of the Sheboygan Railroad Museum) held a series of swap meet/brat fries in Sheboygan Falls, known as the annual "Family Railroad Expo".

Here are some photos from one of them. The event was held at the Falls Municipal Building, which at that time had a large gymnasium/all purpose room that was ideal for such an event.

A new addition the year these were taken was David Martiny's O-Gauge 1950's Roswell NM layout, complete with an alien spaceship and the usual movie monster US Army presence.

The rise of competing other family events and the remodeling of the Falls building led to our shutting down the Expo in the early 2000's. It lay dormant until 2025, when it was revived as an annual event.