The Longhorn and Western Railroad
The L & W RR is TTM's very own full-sized railroad.
Train rides are
ALWAYS included in admission.
Schedule
The train operates every Saturday and Sunday on the following schedule:
10:30 AM, 11:30 AM, 12:30 PM, 1:30 PM, 2:30 PM, 3:30 PM
On Fridays during the school summer break, the train ride schedule is:
10 AM, 11 AM, 12 Noon, and 1 PM
The train runs approximately every 30 minutes during special evening events.
The next "Live Steam Day" will be announced as soon as possible. Our 1925 Baldwin 0-4-0 steam locomotive will power our regular train rides from around 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. One of our diesel-electrics will power the remaining rides. (With steam, all times are approximate. (Many people come early to see the warm-up process and the switching that has to happen between locomotives.)
Texas Transportation Museum visitors can ride our full-sized train as often as they want. We offer scheduled train rides every half hour beginning at 10:30 a.m. on both Saturday and Sunday. We also sometimes run the train on Friday when we have a school group scheduled in advance. You are invited to call the museum at (210) 490-3554 during our regular hours to inquire if the train will be running on the Friday you are interested in. The admission rate is lower on Fridays, when the train is not in operation.
The Longhorn & Western RR is TTM's very own private railroad. We built it ourselves from scratch. Almost everything was donated to the museum, including the rolling stock and the very tracks our trains run on. The L & W is entirely the result of amateur volunteer labor! The L & W is the center piece of the museum. We have a genuine Southern Pacific depot, formerly located in Converse, Texas, which was built around 1941. We have two steam engines, two diesels, a passenger car, a business car, and a variety of other rolling stock, including cabooses and motor cars.
The Longhorn & Western Railroad consists of 3,700 feet of track. The main line is 1,765 feet long, running from Wetmore Road, adjacent to the Longhorn Siding on the UP's mainline, from which our railroad takes its name. Construction began in 1975 and was completed in 1991 with the addition of a storage track behind the Elvey car barn. The railroad was built using materials and tools acquired from the Missouri-Kansas-Texas, Missouri-Pacific, and Southern Pacific Railroads, all of which the Longhorn & Western has outlived.
The next "Live Steam Day" will be announced as soon as possible.
The Longhorn & Western RR is TTM's very own private railroad. We built it ourselves from scratch. Almost everything was donated to the museum, including the rolling stock and the very tracks our trains run on. The L & W is entirely the result of amateur volunteer labor! The L & W is the center piece of the museum. We have a genuine Southern Pacific depot, formerly located in Converse, Texas, which was built around 1941. We have two steam engines, two diesels, a passenger car, a business car, and a variety of other rolling stock, including cabooses and motor cars.
More Longhorn & western railroad images
WORD about safety
Everyone at the Texas Transportation Museum wants your visit to be pleasant. But we also care that it is a safe experience, too. Railroads, by their very nature, are both fascinating and dangerous. It is impossible to stop a TRAIN quickly. Even going at the slow speed we use at the museum, even in an emergency, a train will travel many more feet than a car would at the same speed. In addition, it is simply not possible for the engineer to see everything that is happening "behind" the train.
Help us keep our very successful accident prevention record by following this important rule:
Keep off the tracks at all times!
Keep an eye on your kids. Don't let them wander off on their own. Keep them away from the tracks and the roads. We try to keep our exhibits out where you can see them, but much of it is both rare and easily damaged.
Please keep small hands away, so everything and everyone are safe.