60,000 annual visitors will arrive at the Florida Railroad Experience, a State of Florida Railroad Museum. They arrive at a replica of a Southwest Florida train station entering through the station waiting area filled with displays of long ago pictures of trains, stations and their value to the growth of the local area.
The Florida Railroad Experience brings together much from the world of railroading, excursion train rides, displays of railroad memorabilia and model railroads. Galleries allow our guests to discover memorabilia of life on trains; menus, china, timetables or maybe a conductor’s uniform and Steam Engineer Tools. State of the art technology is also seen; in the corner, parents and children are learning railroad safety using railroad simulator software. Model railroads fill another entire gallery depicting the value of railroading to the United States.
A glance into program offerings on any given day could find school children on a field trip learning the history of railroading, Boy Scouts completing their Railroad Merit Badge, historians researching in the library and instructors educating volunteers on the process of building the model railroad displays. And on some days visitors may even see railroad cars being restored for use on the excursion trains between Parrish and Willow.
After hours of discovery of the railroad experience, guests leave with a greater understanding of the value and significance of railroads through the many decades, as well as having had an entertaining time at the museum.