Railroad Museum of Oklahoma(60)

ENID

Imagine yourself back in elementary school. You were going along in class day after day learning about numbers and new words, developing your personality and discovering friendships. Then one day your teacher sends home a permission slip. A permission slip to go on...get ready for it...A FIELD TRIP!! You get to leave the confines of the school and venture out into the greater world and see things that you only read about up to this point. You're excited and you're probably not even sure where you're going. You just know you're going. Well, that's how I felt the other day when I showed up at the Railroad Museum of Oklahoma in Enid. I was eight years old again and ready to soak up every aspect of trains.

Located in the Nationally registered historic Santa Fe Freight Depot, the museum houses an amazing collection of artifacts and memorabilia related to trains, the life of the crew that worked on and around the trains, and the passengers that rode on those trains. I had a great chat with Mike Marshall about the museum's history, the collections, museums in general, the connection between this museum and the railroad museum I had toured in Yukon, and a little bit about life. Then I set off to see all the things! If you start the tour like I did by hanging a right turn when you get through the front door, you'll see the collection of dishes that were used in train dining cars. It's an unbelievably big China collection that was posthumously donated by the family of Frank "Watermelon" Campbell of Enid. You can see him immortalized on a train car in the yard. (Photo below) Once you've walked through the front room, there is a huge space filled with great train related things. Then beyond that, you begin to see tiny versions of trains. These have been set up and are maintained by the Cherokee Strip Model Railroad Association. They are in the same complex, but are a separate entity from the museum. So going here is like a two for one visit! I have another post that's specifically for them in the Okie Extras section. Click HERE for that article. It's worth a read!

As I passed the model train world at the back of the museum, there is an exit door that I happily went through. It's not the exit exit. It's the exit to the train yard. The big trains!! I wandered around the rail yard in awe of the big metal cars that I see passing by on the tracks. There were freight cars, a passenger car, a couple of cabooses (one that's getting a renovation soon), and the overwhelmingly big 1519 locomotive. The museum recently had a good turnout at the 1519 Centennial Celebration which would have been really cool to attend. But I was happy to take a selfie with the giant beast of a machine. After getting my fill of the rail yard, I headed to the other building that's on the property. That's where the model railroads are.

If you would like to have the thrill of an adult field trip, go see the Railroad Museum of Oklahoma. You too can feel like a kid again as you explore the history of trains in Enid and America. I was told they are in the process of changing the name of the museum to the Enid Railroad Museum so keep an eye out for that. New great name, same great museum.

702 N Washington St, Enid

580-233-3051

Entry Fee: Adults-$6, Kids Under 6-Free

Hours: Wed-Fri 1:00 to 4:00, Sat-10:00 to 4:00

Facebook Page - https://www.facebook.com/RailroadMuseumofOklahoma/

Jonathan Elmore ©2025