A visit to the historic downtown of Winter Garden also brings you to the Central Florida Railroad Musuem. Winter Garden once had two railroads one of which was the Orange Belt Railway company, established in 1886 and the other was the Tavares and Gulf Railroad line. As a result Winter Garden boasts two downtown railway stations. Both of them now house museums. One of them is the Central Florida Railroad Museum.
During the 1940’s Winter Garden declaired itself as the largest citrus shipping point in the world. Much of that shipping was undertaken by railroad.
Central Florida Railroad Museum
Located right in downtown historic Winter Garden, the museum is open daily from 1-5 pm except for major holidays. Parking is available beside and behind the museum with five rooms of railroad and railway memorabilia inside.
The museum displays extensive collections. One such is a collection of china and silverware that was used in the railroad dining cars at one time.
Pictures of all facets of the railroad operations are everywhere in the museum. Hundreds of artifacts are displayed in glass cabinets and adorn the walls.
The museum has a library with thousands of railroad books and videos for visitors to enjoy.
Outside the Central Florida Railroad Museum
Don’t forget to wander out back and take in the former Clinchfield Railroad caboose outside and at the rear of the museum.
The caboose exhibit is accessible through the museum.
There is no charge to visit the Central Florida Railroad Museum. If you are interested in railroad history, this museum has lots to offer, including a very nice scale model of a mine track will appeal to railroad and those with a penchant for model railways.
If you do visit and enjoy yourselves as much as we did, a donation upon exit would be nice! That’s primarily how they support the museum, that and the hundreds of hours of volunteer time contributed by local persons.
Central Florida Railroad Museum
101 S. Boyd Street
Winter Garden FL 34787
T: 407-656-0559
W; www.wghf.org/cfrailroad