Interurban Railway Museum

This historic train station was previously known as Plano Station, Texas Electric Railway. It was in operation from 1908 to 1948. It wasn’t until 1990 when the city of Plano decided to renovate the station into the Interurban Railway Museum.

This wonderful Plano history Museum is free to visit and features interactive exhibits on science, electricity, and the history of Plano along with the Texas Electric Railway. The Museum also provides a free educational program for preschoolers and their parents, called Children’s Storytime. You can partake every Friday at 10:30am.

Visitors must try out the Virtual Reality Tour of the Rail Car 360. Just ask a docent about the tour while you’re at the Museum.  They have both permanent and temporary exhibits, so you can often and have a new exhibit to check out.

Among the permanent exhibits are the downtown Plano model train, the History of the Texas Electric Railway, and Interactive Electricity Room.  Visitors can see how downtown Plano looked 100 years ago with their 1920s O-scale model and watch the two train cars circle the city.

The main exhibit as the Interurban Railway Museum features panels that tell the story of the Texas Electric Railway system. In addition, there are a variety of interactive exhibits for both kids and adults to enjoy.

The Interactive Electricity Room features different activities for all ages, helping visitors learn scientific concepts through demonstration. This includes battery circuit, high voltage, magnetism, and electrical generator visualizations.

At the time of this post, the temporary exhibits are always interesting and worth checking out. Right now they have a ‘Mayhem on the Interurban’ exhibit that features accidents, danger, collisions, crime and peril on the railroad tracks; quite attention-grabbing.

The Interurban Railway Museum offers free admission and tours for walk-in visitors, group tours and also educational school tours. Groups of 10 or smaller (including individuals) can explore the exhibits in the Museum at their own pace. The Historic Car 360 experience is a guided tour.  There may be times that the Historic Car 360 guided tour is closed depending on weather conditions.

Ready to plan your visit? The Interurban Railway Museum is open Tuesday to Friday 11am to 4pm, and Saturday at 1pm to 5pm. While the admission won’t cost you anything, they do accept donations so you might consider contributing. They use all generous contributions to continue providing free admission, add new programs and a lot more. Your donation will not go unnoticed.

Once you’ve finished touring this wonderful historic Museum in Plano, you might consider another point of interest in the area; find it here. If you require assistance with funding your Plano visit, just go here.