Trains at Smithsonian Station

Pack your bags and take a trip on the many rails throughout our collections. These trains hail from all over the country and across the globe, traveling over artists’ canvasses and through the mail. Learn more about trains in America on the Move at the National Museum of American History. While you are reading, enjoy Train Tracks: A Transcontinental Railroad Playlist from Smithsonian Folkways Recordings.

Trains at Smithsonian Station

"The Trail Blazer, First De Luxe All-Coach Train Daily between Chicago and New York" Pennsylvania Railroad poster for 1939 World's Fair

Sketch for mural of The Mail Train

Locomotives, Jersey City

Arrival of First Train in Herrington--1885 (mural study, Herrington, Kansas Post Office)

Train and Factory

Baltimore & Chicago fast train car model

Elevated Turn

Untitled

Engine House and Bunkers

War Voyage

Concerning Railroads

Untitled

Along the River

End of the Line (mural study, Valentine, Nebraska Post Office)

Engines and Landscape

Railroad Station 1880 (mural study, St. Joseph, Missouri Post Office and Courthouse)

"Tom Thumb" Locomotive Model

(Study for mural, The Railroads Came to Town)

Advertisement for The Pullman Company

Uniform cap owned by Pullman Porter Robert Thomas

For Speed and Comfort South African Railways & Airways

Postcard of the Original John Bull Engine

Manufacturer's Photograph of K4s Class Locomotive, Pennsylvania Railroad

Design for K4s Class Streamlined Locomotive, Pennsylvania Railroad

Final Tissue for Creation of Illustration of Streamline K4s Locomotive, Pennsylvania Railroad

Locomotive Study (alternate design for mural study, Bowling Green, Kentucky Post Office)

Plasticine Wind Tunnel Model for a Streamlined K4s Class Locomotive, Pennsylvania Railroad