The Shelburne Museum

The Shelburne Museum in Shelburne, Vt. (not to be confused with Shelburne Falls, Mass.) is a large historical park which has been collecting historic buildings and artifacts for more than sixty years.  The most impressive and fascinating artifact is the side-wheel lake steamer Ticonderoga, which now rests on the hillside above Lake Champlain, where she used to sail.  This ship is in amazingly good condition, and looks ready to slide back into the water at a moment's notice.  I took a lot of pictures of her, but maybe we'd better concentrate on the railroad aspects of the museum.

Two or three station buildings were moved to the site.

There is a full-sized replica of Old Ironsides.... 

 And a steam-powered inspection car, an early speeder.

 Under the shed is the Wagner Palace Car Grand Isle, which was built as a private car in 1899 and later used as a business car on the Central Vermont.   It has been carefully restored, and on display here since 1960.

This is a ten-wheeler built by Alco in 1915 for the Central Vermont, and the road's last operating steam locomotive.   The shed makes it difficult to photograph, but that's the price you pay for having it preserved.

A workman was cleaning and polishing the cab. 

 The tracks running down the hill led to the interchange with a still-active branch of the CV, but probably haven't been used since about 1960.

You could easily spend a whole day or more here.  There's a huge collection of horse-drawn vehicles of all types.  There's art, furniture, farming, a covered bridge, textiles, it goes on and on.  The toy museum has a collection of early toy trains...

and an operating American Flyer layout.

 So it's well worth a visit if you're in the vicinity of Burlington, Vt.