The Best For Last

Medina, NY
43 13.28 N 078 23.15 W

It seemed as if we were running out of fun on the Erie.  Albion and Medina, our last two stops were much less fun and welcoming than we've seen in a while.   Also, the canal itself is monotonous in this region.   There was only one attraction left -- the Medina Railroad Museum which we heard was nice.    Boy what an understatement that was!   We spent three hours in the RR museum today and we were enchanted.  I say without reservation, "Aside from the Smithsonian Museums in DC, this is the best and most fun museum I've ever seen."

The museum is chock full with more than 6,000 artifacts on display.  That's how I think a museum should be.  I really don't like the modern museum style with maybe 60 artifacts on display and 120 plastic storyboards.

This RR museum should be fun for everyone.  Especially, engineers,  train buffs, toy lovers, firefighters, mechanics, culture students, historians, boys, men.  Oh heck, not especially any one, bur rather everyone.

What is in there?  Around the outside walls are artifacts of railroad life, equipment and culture.  Things for the builders, the workers, the customers and the passengers.   More: there are lots of antique toys and models of cars, trucks, boats and planes.  Still more: there is a huge collection of helmets from various fire companies, plus an extensive collection of fire fighting equipment.    In the center of the  room is the largest miniature model railroad layout I've ever heard of.  It is jam filled with marvelous tiny details of all aspects of life in that era.  Just the miniatures alone are a great culture study.

We went wild taking pictures in there.  I'll show just one of them below, but click here to see our slide show.  It is 193 pictures long, but I promise it is entertaining.  

I can't help lay favorable words on this place.   Libby agrees.    If this museum visit was the one and only thing we did on this 300-mile one-month side trip, it was worth the entire trip.   I recommend it for anyone else who has the opportunity to visit, and who has an appreciation for the culture and the technology of recent centuries.

Still more.  Talking to the museum's creator, Martin Phelps, we learned that there are still whole barns full of artifacts not yet on display and that the museum is in the process of acquiring more land and more buildings in which to display them.  That means in future years it will be even better.  Therefore, we have a ready made excuse to repeat this Erie Canal trip just to revisit this museum.