Free Museum Day at the Southeastern Railway Museum

Have you ever participated in the free museum day that the Smithsonian magazine organizes? This was our first year participating in it and we hope to make it a yearly thing from now on.  When I was looking at the list of museums in our area that were a part of the program I felt like our kids would get the most out of the Southeastern Railway Museum.  They are both still a little young for museums that do not have much hands on activities, in other words they are wild and cannot be trusted around anything that should not be touched.

The museum opened at 10am and we decided to get there right when it opened.  I went ahead and printed off our tickets ahead of time, and also bought tickets for both of the available train rides online ahead of time.  With the free museum day you get one ticket that is good for admission for two people.  My husband and I used the two free admissions and then we paid the regular admission price for our son.  Our daughter was free because of her age.  The tickets for the train rides were not included so we purchased those separately.  Every penny spent was well worth it. My advice on the free museum day would definitely be to print your tickets off ahead of time, and to get there a little before opening. We got into the museum pretty quickly, and effortlessly, but the line grew rapidly and stayed long the entire time we were there.

I had never been to the museum before this and I could not believe how big it was!  There was so much to see!  I lost count of how many train cars we were able to go inside.  The kids were able to walk through them all and have a lot of freedom, which we were all thankful for.  It was like taking a step back in time being inside the train cars that are very much unchanged from their once former glory.  We were able to explore sleeper cars, dining cars, train kitchens, train bathrooms, parlors, a mail car, and the list goes on.

Inside the main building there are several more train cars and it is made to feel like a train depot.  There are also vintage automobiles and fire trucks along with a huge model train setup.

My children happen to be obsessed with school buses right now so we were pleasantly surprised to see that they had an entire transit exhibit.  They had many old cable cars and public transportation buses on display.  They enjoyed being able to climb into all the old buses and explore everything.  They were allowed to sit in the drivers seat and pretend they were driving the buses.  It was wonderful to watch their imaginations go wild.

During our visit we were also able to take a ride on their miniature train, and their full size train.  This was the highlight for both of our kids.  The miniature train seats were big enough for my husband and I to each sit with one of our kids.  Tickets for both trains were very reasonable and well worth it.

If you live in Georgia, are coming for a visit, or live in one of our neighboring states and have a train obsessed little one I could not recommend a trip to the Southeastern Railway Museum more.  It was definitely fun for the entire family.  Be sure to check the museum out here.

For more information on the free museum day check it out here.

Check out our video from our day at the museum to see a little bit of the fun!

 

To read about our zoo adventure: A Day at Zoo Atlanta

To read about our adventure at the science museum: A Trip to Tellus Science Museum

Thanks for stopping by!