High-resolution photos may be downloaded for media use only. Museum photos may not be used for any other without prior written consent. Proper photo credit must accompany each use.
General Museum Information – This download contains all the basic facts about the National Railroad Museum.
We recommend an archiving/zip utility such as WinZip to unzip these downloads.
You may click here or on the icon to download WinZip.
![[+]](/images/ico_plus.gif)
Milwaukee Road #261-1
March 10, 1958 was a cold, snowy day, but the excitement of a large steam locomotive arriving, the National Railroad Museum’s first, took the chill from the air. Former Milwaukee Road #261 is guided down the Museum’s rail spur by a Chicago & North Western Railway switch engine. The 261’s arrival is a significant step forward for the new Museum, whose directors worked for nearly four years to acquire this first object.
Credit: National Railroad Museum collection
Download .Zip File Here Milwaukee Road #261-2The little engineer and the huge locomotive – It’s as if the big, black steam engine from the storybook jumped off the page and came to life right before his eyes. In this little engineer’s mind you can see the rods flashing, feel the ground shake and hear the whistle as the great train highballs over the rails.
This little engineer is gazing upon Milwaukee Road #261, the first locomotive acquired by the National Railroad Museum.
Credit: National Railroad Museum collection
Download .Pdf File Here Milwaukee Road #216-3Arriving on March 10, 1958, Milwaukee Road #261 was the first piece of equipment acquired by the National Railroad Museum. The 261 was leased to Friends of the 261 (Minneapolis), who used the locomotive to pull excursion trains around the country.
The big 4-8-4 Northern was delivered to the Milwaukee Road in 1944. Due to wartime restrictions on new locomotive designs, #261 has a boiler designed for the Delaware & Hudson, a Rock Island frame and a Union Pacific tender.
Here #261 is running south of Duluth, Minnesota in May 2002.
Credit: Ken Kemper/National Railroad Museum collectionDownload .Zip File Here Union Pacific #4017 Big Boy (Front View)Big Boy’s job was simple – move 3,500 tons of freight at once over the mountains of Wyoming and eastern Utah as quickly as possible. Using the brute force of 6,000 horsepower, the Union Pacific Big Boys lugged freight trains through the 1940s and 1950s, helping America win World War II and move into the atomic age. Union Pacific #4017 is preserved at the National Railroad Museum.
Photo Credit: Studio 44: National Railroad Museum collectionDownload .Zip File Here Union Pacific #4017 Big Boy (3/4 View)Measuring 132’ 9 7/8” long – nearly half a football field – it’s easy to see why the Union Pacific Big Boys are the world’s largest steam locomotives. Weighing in at 1.1 million pounds, Big Boy could consume 20 tons of coal in an hour and move at 70 m.p.h. However, it took an army of machinists, pipe fitters and maintenance workers to keep this behemoth on the road.
Photo Credit: Studio 44: National Railroad Museum collectionDownload .Zip File Here Pennsylvania #4890 GG-1 Electric LocomotivePennsylvania Railroad #4890, one of 16 GG-1s preserved today, now finds its home in the Lenfestey Center at the National Railroad Museum. Exhibited in the famous Pennsy “cat-whisker” strips, one can almost see her racing between New York and Washington, D.C. with a first-class passenger train.
Photo Credit: Studio 44: National Railroad Museum collectionDownload .Zip File Here British Railways Board #60008 Dwight D. EisenhowerBorn of the ingenuity of Sir Nigel Gresley, British Railways #60008 is among the fastest steam locomotives in the world. The locomotive is capable of speeds in excess of 100 m.p.h. The British named #60008 to honor Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower for his command work during World War II.
Photo Credit: Studio 44: National Railroad Museum collectionDownload .Zip File Here Pullman Sleeper – Lake MitchellAssigned to the Pennsylvania Railroad, the sleeping car Lake Mitchell was part of George Pullman’s great moving hotel. For the traveler, a Pullman sleeper meant service equal to a fine hotel. However, for the Pullman porter, who served the rail passenger, the work was hard, the hours long and the pay minimal. Learn more about the life of the Pullman porters in a new National Railroad Museum exhibit opening in July 2008. The Pullman porter exhibit will be housed a restored Lake Mitchell sleeping car.Download .Zip File Here