The Museum

The Walkersville Southern Railroad Museum is located on and around what was once a secondary line of the Pennsylvania Railroad. Housed within an early 20th century commercial building, the museum features a variety of educational exhibits that showcase railroad artifacts and equipment. It gives special emphasis to the Walkersville Southern Railroad and its predecessors, including the Pennsylvania Railroad. Other highlights include an operating HO scale model and a Children’s Corner with a hands-on wooden train shelf layout, books, and games.

Outside the museum is the Walkersville Southern Railroad (WSRR) Train Station; the Maintenance Shop where the WSRR mechanics base their repair work; and the Engine Shed which houses the WSRR rolling stock engines. Additional rolling stock that has been or is in the process of being restored is stationed on nearby tracks .

The Renovation Campaign

While you will have a memorable visit to the Walkersville Southern Railroad Museum today, plans are also underway for an extensive renovation of the building and museum exhibition area. A preliminary architectural study of the building was conducted in 2018 providing the first glimpse of the re-envisioned museum. Later this year, the Board of Directors will unveil more comprehensive plans for the building and a project timeline. We continue to pursue grants and donations to expedite this important work.

The railway line that connects Walkersville and Frederick is a section of a secondary line of the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR), constructed between 1869 and 1872. Just a few years following the end of the American Civil War, our nation was rebuilding. Passenger and freight railroads were extremely active. The entire PRR secondary line ran from Columbia, PA, through York and Hanover, into Maryland, continuing on through Taneytown, Keymar, Woodsboro, Walkersville, and terminating in Frederick. For decades there was a thriving business on the rails as dairy farmers sent milk and eggs to market and local residents traveled into Frederick for the day or to larger cities in the north.

In 1968 when the Pennsylvania Railroad merged with the New York Central, the line became part of the Penn Central Railroad. In less than three years, the reorganized railroad filed for bankruptcy. In 1972, Hurricane Agnes struck Frederick County resulting in a flood that destroyed the bridge over the Monocacy River, severing the rail line two miles south of Walkersville. The entire line was put up for sale. The State of Maryland purchased the Maryland portion of the line, but only utilized the section north of Walkersville. For 20 years, the six-mile line between Walkersville and Frederick was out of service and became buried under brush, weeds, and asphalt.

In 1991, the Walkersville Southern Railroad (WSRR), a for-profit company, was founded with the goal of operating short run tourist trains. For the next two years, volunteers cleared the tracks and right-of-way of vegetation and debris. In 1993, WSRR was selected by the Maryland Department of Transportation as “operator” of the Walkersville-Frederick line. Rebuilding began immediately with the first tourist excursions taking place in 1995.

In 2017 the Walkersville Southern Railroad Museum was established. It is housed in a building constructed in 1911 by the Walkersville Ice & Power Company, an enterprise associated with the Glade Valley Milling Company, which produced and sold grain. The building was part of a sprawling complex of buildings owned by Glade Valley. All that remains of the complex is the former ice plant building and the large shed across the track, which currently serves as the Walkersville Southern Railroad engine house.

In the mid to late 1980s Maryland Midland Railway operated freight trains out of Walkersville. By that time, the former Glade Valley Milling Company buildings had been purchased by Cargill, a national grain and feed supplier–and a railroad customer. When Cargill left the area in the late 1990s there was not enough commerce for Maryland Midland to operate in Walkersville. WSRR and WSRRM were able to secure ownership of the remaining Glade Valley Milling Company buildings and have used them ever since.