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Railroaders Memorial Museum

The Railroaders Memorial Museum in Altoona, Pennsylvania, occupies the Pennsylvania Railroad's former Master Mechanic's Building, constructed in 1882 for the railroad's physical and chemical laboratories and later used for medical offices, storage and the railroad police headquarters.

Where is Railroaders Memorial Museum?

Location: Pennsylvania, United States
Type: Public building
Coordinates: 40.514, -78.399
Last updated: 2026-10-10

LOCATION

Why is Railroaders Memorial Museum said to be haunted?

The museum opened in 1980 in a smaller exhibit hall and moved into the restored building in 1998. Its ghost story is a railroad worker whose spirit has reportedly been seen walking the halls. In October 2004 the paranormal series Ghost Hunters investigated the museum together with Altoona's Mishler Theatre, and the episode summary concludes that neither place proved to be haunted. The museum's own events have since included a 2026 lecture on ghost stories of the railroad.

Railroaders Memorial Museum, Pennsylvania, United States — Image: Mark Frederick · CC0

What is the history of Railroaders Memorial Museum?

The Railroaders Memorial Museum occupies the Pennsylvania Railroad's former Master Mechanic's Building at 1200 Ninth Avenue in Altoona. According to the museum's own page, the building was constructed in 1882 and first housed the railroad's physical and chemical laboratories; in later years it held medical offices, storage and the railroad police headquarters, which had an indoor firearms range in the basement. The museum calls it the sole survivor of Altoona's Machine Shops. Its "About" page adds that the office building grew in length and in floors and housed the first test department, the railroad police, engineering, the headquarters of the Middle Division, dispatching and the C&S department. The museum's page dates its establishment to 1972, as a tribute to railroaders. It opened in 1980 in a modest exhibit hall and in 1998 moved into the restored Master Mechanic's Building, on land that the museum describes as the site of the first Pennsylvania Railroad shops in Altoona. The museum's mission page of 2021 named the Railroaders Heritage Corporation as a non-profit corporation founded in 1975. The move left the museum in debt. In June 2002 the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported that the new museum had been built with $16 million in state and federal money and had drawn 45,000 visitors in 2001, but that a new board member, the banker Dean McKnight, had found its $250,000 line of credit almost used up and another $250,000 owed to vendors. The paid workforce, 34 at the 1998 opening, had been cut to 16, and the eleven other directors agreed to resign. The paper noted that the original 1980 museum was by then a storage building. Scott Cessna, who then became the museum's executive director, wrote in 2005 that its answer had been "an aggressive special events calendar", designed to appeal to people "who might not otherwise feel they had an interest in railroading". The haunting reached television in 2004. The second episode of the paranormal series Ghost Hunters, first broadcast on 13 October 2004, followed the TAPS team in Altoona to the Mishler Theatre and to the museum, "where the spirit of a railroad worker has reportedly been seen walking the halls". In 2026 the museum's own lecture series, "Along the Broadway", scheduled for 9 October a talk by Ed Ekeleman called "Ghost Stories of the Railroad".

Timeline: the documented record of Railroaders Memorial Museum

1849 The museum's account of the city dates the founding of Altoona to 1849 and says that by 1850 the Pennsylvania Railroad had completed its westward terminal there.
1882 The Pennsylvania Railroad completes the two-story Master Mechanics Building, which houses administrative offices and the company's new Test Department.
1886 A third story is added to the Master Mechanics Building, giving the Test Department two full floors for its laboratories.
1893 Test Department employees give public demonstrations of their materials-analysis work at the Pennsylvania Railroad exhibit in the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago.
1909 The Master Mechanics Building is expanded to four floors to accommodate the growing Test Department.
1914 The Test Department moves to its own dedicated building within the Altoona Works, leaving the Master Mechanics Building for administrative use.
1938 A letter to the Altoona Mirror proposes the creation of a railroad museum in Altoona to promote tourism around the city's railroad heritage.
1972 The Railroaders Memorial Museum is incorporated to raise funds and collect artifacts for a permanent museum.
1975 The museum purchases Loretto, a private railroad car built for steel magnate Charles M. Schwab, its first major acquisition.
21 September 1980 The Railroaders Memorial Museum opens to the public in its original, still-incomplete building.
8 October 1983 The private railroad car Loretto is badly damaged by arson; two juveniles are charged and a restoration committee is formed.
25 April 1998 Grand opening ceremonies are held as the museum moves into the fully renovated Master Mechanics Building.
October 2003 The museum begins marketing the Master Mechanics Building as a haunted tourist attraction, launching Halloween 'Eerie Express' tours.
2004 The paranormal reality series Ghost Hunters investigates the museum in its second episode, first broadcast on 13 October 2004, after reports of a railroad worker's spirit walking the halls; the episode summary concludes that neither the museum nor the Mishler Theatre proved to be haunted.
2008 Patty A. Wilson and Scott Crownover publish Ghosts in the Museum: Strange Tales of the Haunted Altoona Railroader's Memorial Museum (Historical Tracks Publishing).

Is there a rational explanation for Railroaders Memorial Museum?

The televised investigation of 2004 did not find what it came for. TV Guide's summary of the Ghost Hunters episode broadcast on 13 October 2004 records the claim as a report about the museum, "where the spirit of a railroad worker has reportedly been seen walking the halls", and gives the outcome for both Altoona sites in one sentence: "Neither the theater nor the museum prove to be haunted." The same summary notes that the theatre "did have some plumbing problems", and the episode's page on IMDb carries the same text. That summary names no worker and no date for the sighting, and it attaches no death to the building. The museum's own account of the building's uses lists laboratories, medical offices, storage and a police headquarters with a firearms range. What can be dated is the museum's turn towards events. After the near-insolvency reported in June 2002, its executive director Scott Cessna wrote in 2005 that the museum had set out to win local visitors with events that had, in some cases, little to do with railways: of its firefighters' festival he wrote, "What does this have to do with a railroad museum? Frankly, not much." In 2026 the programme includes a lecture on railroad ghost stories.

Can you visit Railroaders Memorial Museum?

The museum gives its address as 1200 9th Avenue, Altoona, Pennsylvania 16602. It occupies the Pennsylvania Railroad's former Master Mechanic's Building, and its rolling stock is kept at the Harry Bennett Memorial Roundhouse. The museum's admission page, read on 10 October 2026, said that the museum and the Horseshoe Curve National Historic Landmark are closed on Mondays and Tuesdays and on all federally observed holidays, and that both also close from a few days before Christmas until a few days after New Year's Day. The page did not print opening hours: it referred visitors to Facebook and Google for them, and stated that admission stops 30 minutes before closing while the store stays open until 4 p.m. It also said that pets are not allowed and that groups of at least ten people can be booked from Wednesday to Sunday. Tickets are sold through an online shop linked from that page (railroadcity.ticketspice.com). Read the same day, it priced admission to the museum alone at $18 for adults aged 18 and over, $17 for seniors aged 65 and over and for military personnel and students with identification, and $15 for ages 4 to 17, with children aged 1 to 3 admitted at no charge; each paid museum ticket bought online carried a fee of between $1.81 and $1.91. A same-day ticket for the museum and the Horseshoe Curve together cost $28 for an adult. For Saturday 24 October 2026 the shop listed an evening at the museum called "Haunted Circus | Return of the GhostTracers", with tours on the hour from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m., for ages 12 and over at $15 a person, and ordinary museum admission was not on sale from 23 to 25 October. The museum's "About" page says that much of the rolling stock can be seen from around the roundhouse complex, which has tracks around "the former RF&P Potomac Yard Bethlehem turntable built in 1923, which is operable". Equipment kept inside the roundhouse is shown to the public only by appointment. From a public viewing area the Memorial Wall plaques can be seen, and at a distance the restoration area, where the page says K4 1361 and a Penn Central cabin car are being restored, and guided tours of the rolling stock and the restoration shop are offered when booked in advance. The Horseshoe Curve landmark, which the museum also operates, is at 2400 Veterans Memorial Highway, Altoona, PA 16601, about 7.4 km (4.6 miles) west-south-west of the museum in a straight line between the two points of the map that the admission page links to. According to that page it closes in November and reopens in April each year, and train rides are not offered there.

Sources consulted

Reviewed by V. Serrano on 2026-08-28 · How we verify our content

Railroaders Memorial Museum

Where is Railroaders Memorial Museum?

Why is Railroaders Memorial Museum said to be haunted?

What is the history of Railroaders Memorial Museum?

Timeline: the documented record of Railroaders Memorial Museum

Is there a rational explanation for Railroaders Memorial Museum?

Can you visit Railroaders Memorial Museum?

Sources consulted

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Railroaders Memorial Museum

Where is Railroaders Memorial Museum?

Why is Railroaders Memorial Museum said to be haunted?

What is the history of Railroaders Memorial Museum?

Timeline: the documented record of Railroaders Memorial Museum

Is there a rational explanation for Railroaders Memorial Museum?

Can you visit Railroaders Memorial Museum?

Sources consulted

💬 Field testimonies (0)

Add your testimony

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