historic railpark and train museum

Stabornc

It dosn't matte whether you are train fan or not. This is a great place to learn about former modes of travel: dining and sleeping on a train; how mail was delivered before planes, and the experience of sitting in a locomotive. Rare historic railcars not found anywhere within hundreds of miles (Hospital Car and Jim Crow car) make this a place for adults, kids, train fans and history buffs.

concon2

Took our niece and nephew. It's a wonderful attraction. We will return again with others. It's a 'quiet' wonder that needs more advertising.

JenniferH18

Very nice history of the Louisville+Nashville Train and of the Bowling Green Train Station. Small gift shop, museum upstairs, and friendly staff. Got a very enjoyable tour of the train. The history of hobos in the museum was interesting as well. Not expensive.Wheel chair access to building and elevator, but not to get on the train.

KMCKentucky

Very "kid friendly" and very interesting. Not too expensive and allow about 1-2 hours tops. Age 5 and up will enjoy it.

RolBak

America was built on the backs of many hard men building the railroad, and the trains that moved us forward. If your kids love Thomas the train, or seeing really big things, they will love this park. Great history lesson, and you can climb up, on, and tour the train. We frequent stopping by here because my 4 year old son loves hanging out here. Whether it's for lunch or a event they are having. This is a beautiful place with friendly and knowledgeable staff.

ladygreyhound33

I took my g'children here and ended up spending about four hours! They loved it! Great history, great gift shop, great displays..."Nana" enjoyed it as much as they did!!!! Wonderful train tour, highly recommend a visit if you're in that area!!

brittanymclaney

My friends chose this place to have their wedding, and it was absolutely beautiful and stunning. It was a unique setting for a wedding, but turned out to be a great place for it.

748kellil

There was hardly anyone else at the museum when we were there, which was nice. The museum itself isn't huge, but has a lot of wonderful displays. Our kids loved the interactive displays upstairs, and I saw photographs from the Civil War I had never seen before, which was cool. The original tiled floor in the downstairs depot waiting area is gorgeous. The tour through the rail cars was very interesting and worth the time. We used our North American Reciprocal Museum (NARM) Association pass and got in for free.Accessibility: Elevator to get upstairs, but no wheelchair accessibility for the train tour. Our son was able to leave his walker in the museum waiting area and there was enough for him to hold on to through the train, so it worked out for us.

350brandyh

Train lovers of all ages will enjoy a trip to this museum. From the HO scale layout to the historical artifacts to the full size train cars, there is something for everyone. Take a tour of an actual L & N rail car and take a step back in time. Friendly and knowledgeable tour guides make this tour fun. Great gift shop, too! (Note: the museum and gift shop are handicap accessible but the train tour is not.)

StacyW227

We entered the museum on whim and we were glad that we decided to stop by there. We happened in right when they were starting a tour of the railway cars on site so we got to experience the mail car, dining car, the executive's personal car and more. It was a definately worth the money and time.

aza572

We found this by accident driving around Bowling Green after our Corvette plant tour. I expected it to be a rather boring walk through a museum full of locomotives, but found that it was way more interesting than that. Our tour guide took us outside to an old train sitting on the tracks and actually took us onto the train. It was restored from the early 1900's, and we got to sit in the locomotive engineer's seat, went into the mail car and learned how the mail was picked up in rural areas by a hook without the train stopping, walked through a dining car and kitchen, the first, second and third class sleeping cars and even saw the personal car of the owner of the train line. Our guide was very knowledgeable and gave us many interesting tidbits of information. Highly recommend this for anyone visiting Bowling Green.

LucasCoolPapa

Very interesting museum and tour at the Historic Railpark in Bowling Green, Kentucky. This museum's focus is preservation and education on rail transportation with primary focus on diesel passenger trains of the forties and fifties. The center piece of the museum is the restored engine and rail cars. The cars include restored Pullman cars and mail car. If you have time, watch one or two of the videos in the theater on the restoration effort of the engine and cars. The restoration effort is a costly, time consuming, and a labor intensive effort. The dedication of the volunteers and trustees of the museum is apparent. Overall the museum displays are good but not spectacular. Could use more interactive displays to hold interest of kids.

sarahrZ6481GI

Absolutely wonderful! Jake, our tour guide, was a great source of information. We could have spent forever looking through everything! Wasn't quite sure what to expect, but it exceeded everything we could have imagined! Highly recommend!

kendyc2014

We took a trip back in time when stepping aboard these train cars without ever leaving the station! Our guide was able to paint a picture of how it was to travel aboard the L&N trains and the history of mail delivery via rail car. The museum on the second floor was informative and the model trains on the first floor were fun to watch. The gift shop had plenty of items to choose from and I made several purchases. I was very impressed with the knowledge of our guide Ed (he drives a 64 Mustang!) and appreciated the time he took to answer all of our questions. Thoroughly enjoyed the tour.

LJKohio

Visited the museum Sept 1, 2014. Took the guided tour and self guided tour. They have done a lot of work to restore the train cars they have on display to their original condition. The mail car is said to be one of 2 left in existence and the Pullmans were very interesting also. The interactive videos around the self guided tour were interesting. I learned a lot from the tour guide who was very knowledgeable about the train operations and history. I would recommend this attraction to anyone who has an interest in train history. They also have a very nice HO setup in the lobby along with souvenirs to purchase. I thought it was a very nice attraction. The only thing I was disappointed in was that they had taken out the engines from the locomotive. I would have found that very interesting to view. Maybe they can get one and put on display in the lobby of the station some day.