Gold Coast Railroad Museum, Railroad museum next to Zoo Miami, United States.
The Gold Coast Railroad Museum occupies the grounds of the former Naval Air Station Richmond, an airship station, beside Zoo Miami. It holds over 50 pieces of rolling stock, including the 1929 presidential car Ferdinand Magellan and the Florida East Coast 153, on trackage that is the southernmost active railroad in the continental United States.
The museum was founded in 1956 by business student and railway enthusiast William J. Gofrey, who took over disused tracks on the former Naval Air Station Richmond after the land passed to the University of Miami. It gained statutory recognition as an official Florida state railroad museum in 1984. Its best-known exhibit is the Ferdinand Magellan, a presidential railcar built in 1929 and last used by Ronald Reagan.
The museum shows how trains shaped daily life and trade in America, from early steam locomotives to modern passenger cars. Visitors can peer inside cabins and understand how people once traveled and worked.
The museum occupies the grounds of the former Naval Air Station Richmond beside Zoo Miami, with roughly three miles of track to walk between the exhibits. Most Saturdays visitors can ride standard gauge cars and even the locomotive cab, while the 2 ft narrow gauge Edwin Link Children's Railroad runs separately. Some rolling stock is being sold off, so the displayed equipment can change.
On weekends, visitors, especially children, can ride a twenty-minute train journey on a separate narrow gauge track. This miniaturized railroad offers a different perspective on the collection and makes the place more than just an exhibition space.
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