Nebraska Railroad Museum NRHS Chapter

The Nebraska Railroad Museum began as the Eastern Nebraska Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society, chartered in 1983 to save the abandoned railroad between Fremont and Norfolk — a stretch of the Chicago and North Western's storied 'Cowboy Line,' built in 1869 as part of the Fremont, Elkhorn and Missouri Valley Railroad. After Elkhorn River flooding wrecked the tracks in 1982 and the C&NW won abandonment, the chapter bought the Fremont-to-West Point section in the summer of 1985 and launched the Fremont and Elkhorn Valley Railroad, running its first excursion to Nickerson on Memorial Day 1986 behind 2-8-0 No. 1702, a 1942 Baldwin steam locomotive. Dinner trains followed, and in 1989 locomotive 1219 and much of the equipment were repainted in maroon, yellow and black to honor the FE&MV predecessor. Decline set in during the 2000s as bridges and connections were embargoed; facing foreclosure in 2010, the museum sold the line and its locomotives to a private party, the Fremont Dinner Train quit the rails in 2012 when promised repairs never came, and track removal began in May 2021, ending hopes of restored service. The museum retains ownership of surviving FEVR equipment, though several pieces have since been sold.