Upcoming Events
No ticketed events are currently listed for Toledo, Lake Erie & Western Railway and Museum, Inc.. Many heritage operators publish schedules seasonally or run on regular open hours instead of dated events.
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About Toledo, Lake Erie & Western Railway and Museum, Inc.
This volunteer-run heritage railroad and museum preserves ten miles of former Nickel Plate line between Waterville and Grand Rapids, Ohio, crowned by a 901-foot Maumee River bridge, the largest owned by any tourist railroad east of the Mississippi. Explore the museum property and the static Museum Train near downtown Grand Rapids, then ride a summer-weekend motorcar run out across the river for the scenic Maumee views.
History
The Toledo, Lake Erie & Western Railway is a nonprofit heritage railroad and museum on ten miles of northwest Ohio track between Waterville and Grand Rapids, a line built as the Toledo, St. Louis & Western, later folded into the Nickel Plate Road and finally the Norfolk & Western, which was moving to abandon it when the TLEW stepped in to buy the segment. The route's showpiece is a 901-foot bridge of 1916 across the Maumee River — the largest bridge owned by any tourist railroad east of the Mississippi. The group's Bluebird passenger train ran until needed track work idled it in 2009; vandalism, the theft of a rare Nathan M5 horn, and a short-lived freight partnership kept it sidelined, and after that lease ended at the close of 2014, members returned to restoring locomotives, cars, and track. Along the way the museum repainted its ALCO S4 No. 5109 into original Chesapeake and Ohio colors in 2013 and, in 2014, acquired the Waterfront Electric Railway Museum property in Grand Rapids — car barn, shop, and a former CTA elevated car and snow sweeper — while a static Museum Train with locomotives No. 1 and No. 202, a tool car, caboose, and coach sits near downtown. Summer-weekend motorcar runs across the Maumee carry visitors while the Bluebird's return is funded and rebuilt.
Nearby
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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