Welcome to French Creek Valley Railroad Historical Society Visitor Information Pages

Welcome To The Official Web Site For The French Creek Valley Railroad Historical Society Crawford County, Pennsylvania

Introduction to the FCVRRHS

Updated July 1, 2008 Caboose C356 Now Open! The FCVRRHS is opening the Caboose every Sunday from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. all summer through Labor Day. Please come down and visit! Donations are always welcome.
Welcome Aboard! Beginning in the mid 1800s, many railroad companies operated in Crawford County, Pennsylvania. The more notable ones include the Atlantic & Great Western Railroad (A&GW), the Erie Railroad (ERIE), the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR), the Bessemer and Lake Erie Railroad (B&LE), the Erie Lackawanna Railroad (EL), the Penn Central Railroad (PC), Conrail (CR), the Western New York & Pennsylvania Railroad (WNYP), and the Norfolk Southern Railway (NS). Traction (trolley) systems were also in operation for a time. For a complete list, enter here. The French Creek Valley Railroad Historical Society was incorporated in Pennsylvania as a non-stock, non-profit corporation in 1996, but became inactive shortly thereafter. In 2004, FCV was reactivated by members of the Railroad Committee of the Crawford County Historical Society, who make up the core group of FCV members. We are committed to preserving the rich railroad history of northwestern Pennsylvania. Because the railroad industry was such a huge influence on our community, we believe its story should be preserved for future generations.

Featured
Exhibits & Events

Upcoming Events

Model Railroad Work Session
The next work session on the layout will be Monday, July 7, 2008, at the U.S. Bronze and Machine, Inc., located at 18649 Brake Shoe Rd., Meadville, PA. The work session will begin at 6:30 p.m.
Rainbow Gardens Show
Train show to be held on Sunday November 2, 2008. Times are tentatively 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Directions and other info to come.

Exhibits

EL CABOOSE C356

Restored Erie Lackawanna Caboose on display in Meadville. The caboose will be open Saturday, May 10, for National Train Day. The regular hours for the caboose will be 1 to 4p.m. beginning on Memorial Day weekend.

FCV is organized and operated solely for educational and public service purposes and is recognized by the IRS as a public charity. Current projects include, the production of a library of video recordings of interviews of former railroad employees, and the construction of a museum fashioned after the Erie Railroad passenger station in Meadville which was designed in 1893. In addition to interactive exhibits, displays of railroad artifacts, and a theatre, the museum will house a model of the Meadville railroad yard complex as it existed between the years of 1945-1955.

We hope you will find this web site both enlightening and interesting, and that you visit often.

Sincerely,
Dennis Mead, President,
French Creek Valley Railroad Historical Society
411 Chestnut Street, Meadville, Pennsylvania 16335
Contact President FCVRRHS

You are visitor Number