The small museum is located inside the town municipal building, which also houses the nice library and municipal offices. The museum contains railroad artifacts, exhibits, and a movie which explains the history and importance of the Gallitzin tunnels. The museum also touches on the town's history. The museum is closed on Mondays, and from January through April. The clean and well maintained park overlooks the tunnels, which gives a great viewing area of this busy train corridor. We saw several trains in the span of just two hours, one after another. You can also view the trains emerging from the tunnel on the bridge overpass, where they have made cutouts in the screen fencing for viewing and picture taking. Finally, there is a fine old Pennsylvania Railroad caboose at the park which is open during museum hours.
At this free attraction there is a little parking lot for the museum (which is actually inside the municipal offices for the town of Gallitzin) or you can park on the side of the little road there. There is a museum (asking for donation only at your discretion) of artifacts from the hey-dey of the Gallitzin Tunnels. They also have a film to watch for free, but it was 30 minutes and a bit longer than we would like. So we looked at the little museum instead. Outside are the tunnels. There is a overlook at the tunnels where you stand or sit on benches and wait for a train to come through. A train never came through the tunnels during our visit. There are also outside jungle gyms for kids to play on as they wait for a train (it keeps the kids occupied as it can become very boring for kids waiting on a train). You can also tour (free) a cabbose. Was fun for a leisure day.
The museum was closed when we were there, but there were still plenty of trains. There are usually some locals hanging out watching trains, and it was nice to chat them up and learn about the local trains. They are very knowledgeable. There are actually three tunnels, and one of them is boarded up. The two tunnels are separate, and this park overlooks the usually busier one. The caboose is also cute. It is one of the best train-watching spots in the area.
We went to see this on a Monday. The museum is closed on Monday, which I expected, but you can see a caboose (the outside of it) and the tunnels. We figured we would see the tunnels and get to watch the trains go through. It seemed only one tunnel was open the other was blocked, maybe the museum would have explained about that but from the description I thought there would be two working tunnels, silly me! We waited in the little park for about fifteen minutes but no train came. It was a pretty spot, though.
Usually something like this requires finding some parking lot or off street parking to see it, but they provided a few parking spots, a sign about the tunnels, and a bridge walkway to see over the trains.
Cute local museum with information on the trains and the old coal town. There are some souvenirs and a restored caboose to have your picture taken with.
If you are planning a rail fan visit to the area, this is a great place to watch the trains come out of the tunnel. Drive the roads in the area and nearby is where they switch off the pushers & they have a viewing area their also. Always remember to respect the RR property. We didn't make it into the museum this trip as it was closed. Across from the park is a B&B and also another one near where they switch out the pushers, both unfortunately were closed when we were their :-(
My grands get a charge out of seeing the life size trains.
There is a little park overlooking the railroad tracks and you get to see the tunnel. The museum was closed during the day when we visited.
This small museum has some information about the Tunnels and some touristy things to buy. Stop in if you go to the tunnel. Be advised, it isn't always open when it says it will be as it seems to be mostly volunteer run.