SHIPPENSBURG, Pa. — The Conrail Historical Society’s museum and archive center, housed in a retired 86-foot hi-cube auto parts boxcar, opened to the public with ceremonies on Saturday, April 1.
The facility, located along the Cumberland Valley Rail Trail, is a collaboration of the society with the rail trail, Shippensburg University, Cumberland Area Economic Development Corp., and the Cumberland Valley Visitors Bureau [see “Conrail Historical Society’s museum in a boxcar to open April 1,” Trains News Wire, Feb. 3, 2023]. It is adjacent to another boxcar holding the Cumberland Valley Railroad Museum, which opened in 2017.
About 100 people were on hand for the opening. Joining society officials in speaking at the opening was Dick Dawson, who as a 27-year-old Penn Central mechanical engineer, designed the PC Class X67 hi-cube box car. The museum is housed in one of the 154 such cars built by PC (140 for Penn Central, 14 for PC-controlled Detroit, Toledo & Ironton) at its ex-Pennsylvania Railroad shops in Hollidaysburg, Pa.
The unstaffed museum is open every day of the year, sunrise to sunset. Research visits to the archives by appointment. The society’s website is here.
— Updated at 9:10 a.m. CDT with information on museum hours, archive visits, society website.
Stopped in to both museums the Thursday before Easter. Nice compact museums. Always wondered what happened to the board from the Virginia tower in DC. It’s in a boxcar museum in Shippensburg PA. I enjoyed seeing the PRR signal wired to change aspects every few seconds. Keep up the good work.
It’s nice to see some people are trying to preserve the heritage of some of the newer railroads that no longer exist. Conrail played a big part in saving railroading in the northeast part of the country. Many people resent Conrail due to the many line abandonments but without the realistic route reductions Conrail would have just been another failed railroad.
It is a nice little place. Great addition for a visit to Shippensburg.
Celebration of failures…