Marshall Steam Museum at Auburn Heights

Volunteer Run Museum Of Stanley Steam Cars, A Miniature Steam Railroad And The 1897 Marshall Family Mansion, Inside Auburn Valley State Park And Operated By The Friends Of Auburn Heights With Delaware State Parks · Yorklyn, Delaware

The Marshall Steam Museum sits on the Auburn Heights Preserve in Yorklyn, a small mill village in the Red Clay Creek valley near the Pennsylvania line, now folded into Auburn Valley State Park. The Marshall family ran paper and fiber mills here, lived in the big 1897 house on the hill, and in the twentieth century T. Clarence Marshall made a hobby of restoring and driving Stanley steam cars, the quiet, fast steam-powered automobiles built in New England before the gasoline engine won. The collection his family kept together is billed as the world's largest operating collection of Stanley steam cars, and the point is that they run. On the first Sunday of each month from June to November, volunteers of the Friends of Auburn Heights fire up the cars and give rides, run coal-fired eighth-scale steam and diesel trains on the Auburn Valley Railroad through the woods, work a 1930s toy train layout, pop popcorn in a vintage machine and open the mansion for tours. On other days it is mostly quiet trails. It is small and homemade, which is exactly its charm.

3000 Creek Road, Yorklyn, Delaware, 19736, United States

This is a seasonal, volunteer-run museum, not a daily attraction. The main public days, called Steamin' Days, have been the first Sunday of each month from June through November, roughly early afternoon to late afternoon (around 12:30 to 4:30 pm in recent seasons); outside those Sundays the museum building, the cars, the railroad and the mansion are normally closed to walk-in visitors. December has usually brought a separate holiday event and there are occasional special tours, evening events and group visits by arrangement - confirm dates, because they vary from year to year. Rides and trains run only in suitable weather and with enough volunteers, so heavy rain, lightning or a mechanical problem can stop them for part of the day. Tickets have been sold at the door, with cash or card accepted and no advance purchase required - confirm. The preserve trails around the house and the wider Yorklyn area of Auburn Valley State Park are open daily from around sunrise to sunset, even when the museum is shut.

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