Danbury Railway Museum to Host Steel & Wheels Benefit Car Show

The Danbury Railway Museum is pleased to once again be the host venue for the Steel & Wheels benefit car show, this year to benefit Homebridge Ventures. HomeBridge Ventures works with formerly incarcerated individuals, and seeks to break the cycle of recidivism through transformative relationships, trauma-responsive job training, and placement. The day’s fun will begin at 10:00am and the car show will officially end at 3:00pm (rain date: Sunday, June 16). The museum itself will close at 4:00pm. General admission includes admission to the museum, train rides, tours of vintage railroad equipment, and the car show. Trains will begin running hourly at 11:00 with the last train departing at 2:00. Although the museum itself opens to the public at 10:00am, show cars are welcome beginning at 9:00am; owners should show up at the gate where a registration fee of $20 will be collected by the car show personnel.

The car show is expected to attract many classic and unusual cars with the first 100 entries receiving goodie bags; every entry receives a dash plaque. A People’s Choice trophy is among a number of special awards to be given out. There will be music, food (provided by the Dining Car Society), railyard tours, and other surprises. Visitors can also participate in raffles.

The museum’s Rail Yard Local will be operating — a short trip in a 100-year-old vintage passenger coach pulled by a 75-year-old locomotive. Train riders will take a ride on the recently-restored historic turntable which is on the National Register of Historic Places – a very unique experience – then tour the steam-era water tower pump house.

In the historic 1903 museum building, visitors can explore railroad history exhibits, operating electric train layouts, static model displays of the station and railyard, many one-of-a-kind artifacts of railroading history, a wonderful gift shop, and many other items of interest. Outside in the historic railyard, guests will find walk-through exhibits, and a vast assortment of train cars and locomotives – many that ran in Danbury during its railroading heyday.