CONNEAUT – As Art Carlucci reached the twilight of his life, he was tickled to celebrate his birthday with his wife and children at the Conneaut Railroad History Museum.
Carlucci, who passed away in 2025, was the last surviving member of the crew that built the tracks the Berkshire and its caboose sit on just outside the museum.
“Art, he made such a big deal of it,” Conneaut Railroad Museum President Jeff Morrell said. “He was so happy that day when he came back. We gave him a T-shirt and a hat. He just loved it. It warms our hearts, too, that folks come in and then they really appreciate all that we do.”
“I created a plaque for him that I’m going to mount somewhere out there outside because he helped lay the track down,” Morrell continued. “He was the last surviving member of the track group.”
The Carlucci family’s story is just one of thousands tied to the history of Conneaut’s relationship with the railroads and the Conneaut Railroad History Museum, 363 Depot St., strives to memorialize those stories.
“We’re coming to, probably, a second or third generation after those who worked for the railroad,” Morrell said. “Sometimes people tend to forget until they drive down Depot Street and see that big locomotive sitting down there.”
The museum, 363 Depot St., is open to the public Fridays through Sundays from Memorial Day to Labor Day and displays authentic items and pictures donated by the men and women whose lives were impacted by the railroads, while telling the story of the industry in Conneaut.
“The most important part, I think, at this museum, is it’s called the Conneaut Railroad Museum, and the reason why it’s called the Conneaut Railroad Museum is because almost everything in here is about Conneaut railroads,” Conneaut Railroad History Museum Vice President Fred Lemmo said. “It’s about the Nickel Plate in Conneaut. It’s about the New York Central that was here in Conneaut and it’s about the Bessemer that was in Conneaut. We have other things, too, but, mostly, it’s all that. Everything in here has been donated by people in town. It’s a railroad museum, but it’s a Conneaut railroad museum.”
The museum opened in 1962 with the Berkshire standing on the tracks outside the building.
“This was actually the dream of two local guys, and (Jack) Phipps and (Eugene) Lambert,” Conneaut Railroad Museum President Jeff Morrell said. “They were the ones who started it. They were the ones who really pushed to get this museum started.”
Aside from the Berkshire and its caboose, there are displays Morrell loves for the public to enjoy.
“We have some things that feature Abraham Lincoln, because he was a lawyer for the Illinois Central,” Morrell said. “We have his railroad pass out there on the display. One of our members penned two articles about Lincoln visiting Conneaut. One was when his inaugural train was on its way to Washington, and then when his funeral train came through, heading back to Springfield with his body. Both of them stopped in Conneaut very briefly.”
A staircase was added to the caboose attached to the Berkshire, which has stood outside the museum since 1964.
“Cliff (Bowers) even took it upon himself to make another staircase, identical to the one that’s on the on the back end of the caboose, and now people can walk in one end and walk out the other and they don’t have to make a U turn and come back,” Morrell said.
Improvements have also been made to the engine.
“We also had him working on the engine and he replaced the windows on it this last year so that makes it a whole lot nicer there, too,” Lemmo said. “We’ve been making improvements right along.”
Inside the museum, a display memorializes a member who had passed away.
“We also have a new display out there in memory of a former member, Mike Clancy, it’s in one of the LED cases,” Morrell said. “It’s from his home model railroad. His wife was nice enough to donate the stuff to us, and we created a display out of it.”
Nearly all of the displays in the museum have been donated by residents of Conneaut.
“I’m thrilled,” Lemmo said. “I think all of us are every time we get something new, we all Google it and kind of watch it and want to see it and want to see where we can put it and we’re trying to figure out how we can put it in here and make it work.”
The building that houses the Conneaut Railroad History Museum has also gotten some tender loving care.
“Everything’s pretty much as it has been,” Morrell said. “We did do some major repairs. We did the basement last year, and that’s the last of the major projects we have for now, and that’s made a world of difference, because we no longer have the humidity with the groundwater coming in, and the floors up here are actually starting to settle down, and the moisture content has gone way down. That’s been alleviated to a great degree now. It was a big expenditure, but it was well worth the effort to get it done, because it’s going to stabilize the whole building.”
Morrell and the museum staff are still in need of volunteers.
“They don’t have to know anything about railroad to come in and help,” Morrell said. “We can instruct them how to do things. We have the fact sheets that we give to people and they can learn from us.”
For more information, call 440-599-7878.
