The Cincinnati Railroad Club maintains a library of over 4,100+ items. In our clubroom, located on the 3rd floor of the Cincinnati Museum Center (also known as Cincinnati Union Terminal located at 1301 Western Avenue), members have access to over 1,000 books and DVDs. Due to space limitations, the other 3,100+ items currently reside in our nearby warehouse space. Two spreadsheets on this website contain a list of holdings, one for our 3rd floor clubroom and a separate list for the warehouse. For security and safety reasons, access to the club’s warehouse space is restricted.
Our 3rd floor club room books are arranged by the four remaining Class 1 railroads and their various predecessors. For example, the Southern Railroad books are filed on the Norfolk Southern bookcase, the L&N is filed within the CSX bookcase. Because the Pennsylvania, New York Central, Penn Central, and their predecessor rail lines were split between the CSX and Norfolk Southern, they are afforded their own book case. Each shelf is labeled with the railroad name to ease your quest to find books about a favorite road. Additionally, our 3rd floor holdings include books about locomotive and car builders, interurbans, trolleys, Amtrak, museums, and specialty railroads.
Unfortunately, due to the rarity and cost of tracking and replacing this vast collection, our books cannot be circulated outside our clubroom. Be assured, the clubroom is equipped with many comfortable chairs for you to settle in for a good read and a refrigerator for your favorite non-alcoholic beverage. Upon request, we can also play a DVD of your choice from the club collection on our big screen TV.
Our library is normally open to members on meeting nights at 5PM until 7:15PM, selected Saturdays as shown on our club calendar, or upon request given the availability of our volunteer staff.
