Whippany Railway Museum

The Whippany Railway Museum traces its roots to the station depot that opened on January 7, 1905, and to the 1965 establishment of the Morris County Central Railroad steam‑excursion line at the same site. After the freight house was relocated across the tracks in 1967, the Morris County Central Railroad Museum operated there until financial pressures forced the railroad to move to Newfoundland, New Jersey, in 1973 and the museum to relocate to a restored refrigerator car in 1974 as the Pequannock Valley Transportation Museum. Following a series of vandalism incidents and the final Morris County Central run on December 14, 1980, members of the Pequannock Valley Transportation Museum began restoring the deteriorated freight house in 1983, moved the last of their equipment to Whippany in January 1984, reorganized as the Whippany Railway Museum, and opened the restored facility on October 26, 1985. The museum received a formal proclamation from the New Jersey State Assembly in early 2011 recognizing its preservation work, and in 2016 the loss of the Morristown and Erie “Polar Express” Christmas excursion sharply reduced its seasonal operations.