Choo Choo! Chugga Chugga – it must be the Southern Arizona Transportation Museum and all the cool history that you can learn about! (Of course, there are real life trains in there too!)
The Southern Arizona Transportation Museum gets the whole family all aboard for some transportation fun. It’s a great way to learn all about the former Southern Pacific Depot. There are Depot Tours too which you can join that can tell you all about it!
It’s also a great way to learn about the history of the area. We love trains now, and they can take us to some amazing places, but can you imagine living at a time when there weren’t any trains! (They had to be invented at some point!) Trains came into the Tucson area in March 1880, so you can go back to a time when they first arrived and see how much they impacted the area.
Of course, what would the Southern Arizona Transportation Museum be if they didn’t have actual locomotives on display for you to look at! There is a real restored Depot Lobby (from around 1941), and a very historic Locomotive #1673.
If you know trains, you might just be impressed with that number!
The Southern Arizona Transportation Museum also has some fun events across the year which are fun to be a part of. They have parties, celebrations and fundraisers. They also have some fun kids events and activities like film screenings!
So if you are a family that LOVE trains, and want to learn a bit of history at the same time as you get right up close to some historic artifacts, then head on down to the Southern Arizona Transportation Museum! All aboard – departing soon!
Friendly volunteer staff, lovely atmosphere, many many interesting fact to learn about Tucson in general and the Southern Pacific Railway. There is a toy railroad inside to play with for the little ones and a real locomotive to climb outside!! My toddler and I had a lot of fun. We will be back.
Run entirely by friendly volunteers. Donation-only admission. Plan an hour or less, though, as it is small-scale. A nice stop on downtown sight-seeing routes!
It was pretty informational. Would be nice if there was more to do. I suppose next time I should ride the trolley.