History After Dark

History After Dark

History After Dark is a new series brought to you by the Education Department of the National Railroad Museum. Each month, we will host a Behind the Scenes tour and one lecture event to coincide with our extended hours on Tuesday evenings. Explore our wide variety of exhibits and learn something new each month in 2024!

Tickets are $8 for each of these experiences. Members will pay $6 for Behind the Scenes tours and enjoy lectures free of charge. These events do not include standard Museum admission. 

April 9th, 2024 – 7 PM

Behind the Scenes tours are presented by Justin Lambrecht, National Railroad Museum Director of Education.

You may have explored the public spaces of the National Railroad Museum before, but not like this! Let us take you behind the scenes! In this one-hour program, we’ll go beyond the public portion of the Museum and look into the spaces where those railroad stories come from. Come along as we visit the archives and restoration shop to learn what happens before you see an exhibit. Note: This program involves considerable walking, climbing stairs, and entering a working shop facility. Closed-toe shoes are required.

Tickets are $8 each, and $6 for members. Reservations are encouraged as there are only 20 spots in each Behind the Scenes tour.

March 19th, 2024 – 6 PM

March Subject: Signals: The Traffic Lights of Trains 

 Railroads have traffic lights, too! Like those for vehicles, railroad signals keep trains from colliding with each other. They alert the operating crew to conditions ahead like whether they are changing tracks and how fast they can go. Hear about the story of their development – why are there different styles (as exhibited by the Museum’s own track)? How can technology in place today obsolete them? 

Trains used to be how the preponderance of the mail moved. Special Railway Post Office cars were used to sort and distribute the mail on the move. The Museum just finished restoring their Chicago, Burlington & Quincy #2330 mail car and put it back on exhibit – hear how these cars were once the backbone of moving the mail and how it was done. 

April 23rd, 2024 – 6 PM

April Subject: Track: Not as Simple as it Looks

 Trains need tracks to run on. What are the components? What do all those rocks do? Why has rail length increased from thirty-nine feet to a quarter mile long? How does the track react to temperature changes? It’s not as simple as it looks – come and hear how these components work together. 

Presenter Info: Brian Buchanan is a lifelong railroader who, in his retirement, wants to Educate, Engage, and Entertain people about his favorite topic – how railroads work – by using Museum artifacts to explain. With it being winter, and it being too cold for us to pump the railroad handcar up and down the track, he is looking forward to evenings (indoors) discussing and illustrating the railroad’s rich history.

Tickets are $8 each, and attendance is free for Museum members. Reservations are encouraged, but not required for this event.

Contact Us

Justin Lambrecht, Education Director: (920) 437-7623 or nrrmeducation@nationalrrmuseum.org