Photo by Dennis G. Jarvis, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)
Upcoming Events
No ticketed events are currently listed for New Brunswick Railway Museum. Many heritage operators publish schedules seasonally or run on regular open hours instead of dated events.
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About New Brunswick Railway Museum
Hillsborough's New Brunswick Railway Museum preserves what remains of the Salem and Hillsborough Railroad, the volunteer-run tourist line that steamed over a former CN gypsum branch from 1984 to 2004. Now a static collection of the Canadian Railroad Historical Association's New Brunswick Division, it keeps the former excursion train as its centerpiece — a tangible piece of Maritime railroading in a village overlooking the Petitcodiac River.
History
The New Brunswick Railway Museum in Hillsborough, owned and operated by the New Brunswick Division of the Canadian Railroad Historical Association, grew out of the Salem and Hillsborough Railroad, a tourist line formed in 1982 by volunteer rail enthusiasts and retired railroaders. The group took over a stretch of former Canadian National branch trackage running roughly twenty miles from CN's Moncton–Saint John main line at Salisbury east past Hillsborough — a subdivision CN had kept in service for a gypsum quarry until the quarry closed in the late 1970s. Trial trains ran in 1983 and public operations began in 1984, with historic CN and Canadian Pacific steam locomotives Nos. 29 and 1009 — engines that had worked in New Brunswick until dieselization in the early 1960s — heading regular coach and dinner trains between Hillsborough and Salem through 2004. A fire on September 16, 1994, destroyed the engine house along with several engines and carriages, plus offices and historical records. Since 2005 the site has carried on as a static museum, with the former excursion train as its centerpiece.
Nearby
Hillsborough sits on a hill above the Petitcodiac River in Albert County, New Brunswick, today part of the amalgamated village of Fundy Albert. Acadian farmers settled the spot around 1700 as Blanchard's Village, building dykes still in use, and settlers from Pennsylvania — among them the prolific Steeves family — arrived in 1763. Alongside the railway museum, visitors will find the Hon. William Henry Steeves House Museum, honoring one of the Fathers of Confederation, in the largest settlement of Hillsborough Parish.
Where to Stay
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Most heritage railroads sit well off the interstate. Picking up a rental at the nearest airport is usually the easiest way in.
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