Museum CLOSED

UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE

The Tri-States Railway Preservation Society was founded in 1985 and has preserved and interpreted Port Jervis’s rich railroad heritage for nearly 40 years. Throughout our history, we have operated a museum dedicated to local railroad history, sharing the stories, artifacts, and legacy of the railroads that shaped our community.

Unfortunately, our museum has been repeatedly displaced by the actions of the City of Port Jervis. We were evicted from the Erie Depot in 2002, from City Hall in 2010, and from the Youth Recreation Center in 2022. Following the third eviction, our museum was finally relocated to what we believed would be a permanent home: a dedicated boxcar at the historic Erie Turntable site.

Our Collection

Over four decades, our museum’s collection has grown through generous donations and careful acquisitions. These artifacts form an irreplaceable record of Port Jervis’s railroad history and its importance to the region. Our collection represents the memories, stories, and lives of residents’ fathers and grandfathers who worked here in Port Jervis with these tools, trains, and machines.

However, the City of Port Jervis is now evicting us for a fourth time, and we are being required to remove our entire boxcar from the Erie Turntable site by July 2026. This means our museum — and the historic artifacts it contains — must leave the City of Port Jervis. Our organization will be forced to continue our mission elsewhere in Orange County.

OUR Future

In the first half of 2026, the boxcar — and the railroad history our organization has preserved for 40 years — will leave the City of Port Jervis permanently. While this decision is deeply disappointing, we remain committed to protecting these artifacts and ensuring they remain accessible to the public.

We anticipate that the museum will not reopen at a new location until at least 2027. During this transition period, we are actively working to keep Port Jervis’s railroad history accessible to city residents through partnerships with other local museums and cultural institutions. Many of our artifacts are currently on temporary display at the Columns Museum, operated by the Pike County Historical Society and located just seven miles from downtown Port Jervis.

We are deeply grateful to everyone who has supported us and our mission over the years. This page will be updated as soon as our future location has been finalized.

How You Can Help

If you disagree with the City of Port Jervis’s decision to evict our museum and remove these historic artifacts from the city, we encourage you to contact City officials directly. With the support of community voices, there may still be an opportunity to keep the Tri-States Railway Preservation Society — and Port Jervis’s railroad history — where it belongs.